Honenu Attorney Nati Rom; Photo credit: Honenu
Thursday, November 7, 2024, 16:46 The Jerusalem Magistrates Court released a Yehuda and Shomron resident who was detained on suspicion of assaulting border policewomen near Givat Assaf in the Binyamin region earlier in the week. The detainee, a resident of Oz Tzion, a community located near the scene of the incident, asserted that he was not at the site at the time of the incident and was detained after the incident because he was on the hilltop. Four other Yehuda and Shomron residents were detained after the incident and released by the court within a few days.
At the hearing, Honenu Attorney Nati Rom, who is representing the detainee, revealed that the latter was recorded by a security camera driving his car in a community a 20-minute drive from the site of the incident at the time that the police claimed that he had assaulted the officers. Attorney Rom also revealed that the policewoman who claimed that the resident had assaulted her testified that she had photographed him, but had not been able to detain him. The court accepted Attorney Rom’s proof that the resident had not been at the site of the incident at the time cited by the officers and unconditionally released him. The judge cited several decisions in which courts released left-wing activists suspected of assaulting police officers, including a protester who threw a flaming torch at a mounted police officer.
Honenu Attorney Rom: “Immediately upon his detention, my client claimed that he had only happened to pass by the site of the incident. Unfortunately, the police were confused, to put it mildly, and claimed that he had definitely been identified at the site. This facilitated his two-day detention. In the meantime, my client’s testimony was supported by the large amount of corroborating evidence gathered. The court released him today, as they should have. I thank the judge, who cited in his decision several
decisions that were handed down in cases of left-wing anarchist protesters. The protesters were detained at riots and instances of assaulted police officers, and the courts immediately released detainees suspected of serious crimes. One must not be complacent in the face of discrimination.”