Honenu reports: Police embarrassed again – Court unconditionally released girls suspected of “price tag” incident

Posted on December 11, 2011 by admin

Sunday, December 11, 20:32 Once again the special “price tag” investigation team of the National Unit of Serious and International Crime Investigations embarrassed itself. Today the Jerusalem Magistrate Court unconditionally released two girls suspected of vandalizing IDF vehicles at the Binyamin Brigade base in Beit El.

Investigators from the National Unit of Serious and International Crime Investigations requested that the court extend the girls’ remand by eight days, however Judge Oded Shaham accepted the plea of the girls’ defense attorney, Ariel Atari, who was hired by Honenu, and released them unconditionally.

This court’s decision joins the long list of instances in which the National Unit of Serious and International Crime Investigations has demanded a remand extension on suspects in a “price tag” incident case, when there has been no evidence implicating them in any crime.

In a related case, the remand of the soldier suspected of involvement in a “price tag” incident has been extended by four days. The police requested an eight-day extension, however Judge Shaham only partially acquiesced. During the deliberation Honenu attorney Adi Kedar, who is representing the soldier, said that due to the abuse that the soldier suffered, he refused to cooperate with the interrogation.

The soldier told the court that the interrogators even withheld meals from him and abused him physically and mentally. The soldier said that National Unit of Serious and International Crime Investigations interrogator Shalom Hadad, together with another interrogator, had him stand in a corner of the the interrogating room for over a hour as a punishment. Also the soldier told of hearing “inappropriate talk” from Hadad, who apparently tried to break his resolve.

Honenu reports in response that, “The investigators from the National Unit of Serious and International Crime Investigations shot an arrow and now they are drawing the target. It turns out that there is nothing supporting the declarations of capturing the “’price tag’ incident underground”. We call on the police commissioner to return the National Unit of Serious and International Crime Investigations to its original purpose, fighting organized crime, and not to humiliate the best investigators of the Israeli Police by having them persecute innocent 16 year old girls.”

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