Complaint filed with Police Investigation Unit

Thursday, May 29, 2014, 20:25 Although the ban on meeting with an attorney was lifted, by means of various ruses the officers in the Department of Nationalist Crime in the Central Unit of the Jerusalem Police succeeded in preventing a detainee held in the GSS Kishon Detention Center from meeting with his attorney for an additional 12 hours. In response Honenu attorney Rehavia Piltz filed a complaint with the Police Investigation Unit.
An 18-year-old Shomron resident has been in remand since May 20 under severe conditions in the GSS Kishon Detention Center. On Wednesday, May 28 after he had been banned by a special order from speaking to an attorney since his detention, interrogators from the Central Unit of the Jerusalem Police informed Honenu attorney Yossi Lin, who is representing the detainee, that the ban on meeting with an attorney would not be extended.
Lin asked to coordinate his entry into the Kishon Detention Center at 23:59 on Wednesday, May 28, at which time the order came to an end, however several minutes later he was told that the detainee had been taken to an “investigatory operation”, and that it was possible to meet with him in Jerusalem only.
Late at night Honenu’s staff called Honenu attorney Rehavia Piltz, a Jerusalem resident, and he hurried to try to coordinate a meeting with the detainee. “I approached the officer in charge of interrogations, Captain Yaniv Piamenta, however to my surprise I was suddenly told that a meeting with the detainee would not be possible until the end of investigatory operation which had already been started by policemen from the Central Unit of the Jerusalem Police,” said Piltz.
Piltz explained to the interrogator that preventing him from speaking to the detainee was illegal because the order expired at 23:59, and stressed that the police interrogators had known for a long time that the order would expire at that time.
After the interrogator refused to allow him to meet with the detainee, Piltz rushed to prepare an urgent appeal which was filed at 2:00 A.M. with the Jerusalem Magistrate Court. Piltz was forced to wake up the court secretary who woke up the judge on duty in order to rule on the urgent request.
While the court began to handle the appeal Captain Piamenta turned to Piltz and told him that the interrogation was over, but the detainee had been returned to the GSS Kishon Detention Center in northern Israel and only there would it be possible to meet with him. Piamenta allowed Piltz to speak to the detainee by telephone, but only for a few moments, and that was three hours after the ban on meeting with an attorney was over.
Due to the unnecessary delays caused by the police an attorney was able to meet with the detainee only in the afternoon on Thursday, May 29, 12 hours after the ban was over, being as the detainee was brought from the Kishon Detention Center to the Lod District Court in the morning for a deliberation on the appeal on his case.
Piltz sent an urgent letter to the Police Investigation Unit regarding the conduct of the police interrogators in which he demanded that an investigation be opened and that the police interrogators be judged severely.
“The policemen violated the law and the rights of the detainee crudely and with prior intent, while greatly disparaging attorneys,” wrote Piltz. “Moreover, the ruse that the police engineered against the attorney in order to prevent him from advising his client before the interrogation is unconscionable. Also,” added Piltz, “In addition to that, the interrogators’ actions are a callous violation of the right of a detainee to consult with an attorney. We reiterate that the Supreme Court has expounded in great detail on the vital need for a meeting between a detainee and his attorney. In this case the importance is greatly increased due to the nine days during which the detainee was interrogated without being able to meet with an attorney and without any possibility of ensuring that his rights were not violated. I request that this occurrence be treated with the utmost severity, and that the policemen who conducted themselves improperly be judged to the full extent of the law.
“The Israeli Police conducted themselves illegally. Actions such as these undermine the entire moral basis of the police to demand enforcement of the law. If the police interrogators themselves do not follow the law how can they demand enforcing the law on others?” asked Piltz.
“The police are rudely trampling the rights of a suspect,” said Honenu attorney Yossi Lin, who is representing the detainee. “After the suspect had been prevented from meeting with an attorney for many days and the ban [on meeting with an attorney] had been lifted, the police found a ruse by which to extend the ban. I regard with great severity the fact that the police did not allow a suspect to meet with an attorney before his interrogation began.”