Wednesday, December 7, 16:10 Honenu attorney Adi Kedar, who is representing the soldiers suspected of a “price tag” incident, was astonished to discover that the Military Criminal Investigation Division (MCID) had not presented them with any formal accusations but rather had been satisfied with a general statement of “suspicion of carrying out a ‘price tag’ incident”.
This morning investigators from the National Unit of Serious and International Crime Investigations brought the soldier suspected of involvement in vandalizing IDF vehicles in the Binyamin Brigade region in Beit El to the Petah Tikva Magistrate Court. The police requested an eight-day remand extension, however the court extended the remand only until this coming Sunday.
In a related incident, when Honenu attorney Adi Kedar visited two soldiers arrested by the Central Police Unit of the MCID he was astonished to discover that the MCID investigators had not presented them with any specific accusation and had agreed to tell them only that they were suspected of carrying out a ‘price tag’ incident. “At Honenu we are calling it a scandal. One can’t arrest a man and not present him with an accusation. It is simply an reprehensible scandal because the soldiers are not being given the opportunity to defend themselves and to refute the accusations against them.” Kedar will file an urgent appeal on their remand demanding their immediate release.
Additionally, interrogators from the National Unit of Serious and International Crime Investigations summoned for interrogation a minor who had been arrested in the past on suspicion of cutting down olive trees belonging to Arabs. After the interrogation, during which the minor denied all charges, the interrogators requested that his remand be extended by three days, however Judge Nitza Maimon Shashua agreed with Honenu attorney Adi Kedar, who represented the minor, and immediately released him unconditionally.
Sources close to the arrested soldiers reported that the soldiers have been marked by the IDF due to their political beliefs and the fact that they live in outposts in Yehuda and Shomron. Currently the police are attempting to incriminate them by any means possible. “The fact that MCID investigators are not presenting them with any accusations speaks for itself.”
Honenu reports that, “We see again and again the desire of the police to use any means possible to put settlers in remand. We hope that the Israeli Police will come to their senses and devote their considerable resources to fighting rampant crime throughout the country.”