Detainees left overnight in cold, open areas of police station

Sunday, December 11, 2016, 14:50 Honenu Attorney Menasheh Yado filed a complaint with the Public Complaints Unit of the Israeli Police about a serious violation of the rights of a couple from the Shomron detained in the Old City of Jerusalem and forced to sleep in cold, humiliating conditions in the police station, because the police did not transfer them to a detention center as required by law.
“Leaving an individual in remand overnight at a police station constitutes a violation of his rights,” wrote Yado in the complaint, and also quoted a court decision from a similar case.
He added, “However leaving a man to sleep in an open courtyard all night without a blanket in 5-degree Jerusalem cold is already abuse for the sake of abuse! This was sadistic treatment of my client by means of abuse of power.”
Honenu intends to file a civil suit against the police in addition to the complaint. “We will not accept such a severe violation of the basic rights of detainees. Unfortunately there appears to be a trend on the part of the police to abuse individuals detained on or near the Temple Mount.”
The couple was detained in late November after being accused of arguing with policemen who claimed that both of them refused to present their identification cards as they were “Circling the Gates” around the Temple Mount. After interrogation at the Merchav David (Old City) Police Station they were held in remand overnight. However in violation of the law and police regulations they were not transferred to a detention center but rather were left to sleep in the police station. The complaint states that the wife was left to sleep on a bench in humiliating conditions, in a poorly heated corridor of the interrogation department, which is open to passersby, both male and female, without a blanket. She fell sick and missed several days of work after her release.
Her husband was forced to spend the night in a cold, open courtyard of the police station, without a bed or a blanket. The following morning both detainees were unconditionally released after the court rejected the police demand to distance them from the area of the Temple Mount for 15 days.