Appeal postponed on youth accused of slaughtering goat

Thursday, March 29, 20:25 The remand extension appeal on the youth suspected of slaughtering a goat has been postponed. The judge had offered house arrest, however the arrestee has no place outside of Yehuda and Shomron in which to stay under house arrest therefore his remand was extended. Several new details about the incident are reported below.
E., the youth assaulted by Arab goatherds and later evacuated to hospital for medical treatment, has been in remand for over a week on suspicion that he assaulted his assailants and slaughtered one of their sheep.
Nine days ago three Arab goatherds from the Mukhmus village approached the Yekev Intersection near the community of Pisagot in the Binyamin region. Four Jewish youths who were at the site attempted to drive them away by throwing rocks in the direction of their flock. The goatherds claim that one of the goats was slaughtered by the youths. The goatherds grabbed one of the the youths and brutally beat him until he required medical treatment including stitches to his head.
Policemen who arrived on the scene chose to arrest E., the injured youth, on suspicion of assault and did not respond to the complaint by E. that the goatherds assaulted him, despite his clearly visible injuries.
Yesterday, after E. had remained a full week in remand, Judge Irit Cohen decided to release E. to house arrest outside of Yehuda and Shomron, which was not possible. Judge Cohen therefore extended E.’s remand by eight days. E.’s attorney filed an appeal on the decision.
Today a deliberation took place on the appeal at the Jerusalem District Court under the auspices of Judge Ram Winograd. Despite the admission of the prosecutor that there are contradictions in the testimony of the complainants and despite the fact that the prosecution is not claiming that E. was the one who definitely slaughtered the sheep, Judge Winograd decided to let the decision rest and did not allow E.’s release to house arrest.
In his final decision Judge Winograd chose to ignore the plea of E.’s attorney, according to which the court had discriminated between the complaint of the Arabs, who were not interrogated, and that of E., a Jew.