Detainee held under extreme conditions charged with minor incident

Monday, December 28, 2015, 16:32 After enduring 29 days of interrogation by the GSS under harsh conditions, including abuse and severe violence, a youth was issued a plaintiff’s affidavit, but not in connection with the Kfar Duma arson incident for which he was detained. The affidavit was issued shortly after 16:30 on the afternoon of Monday, December 28 in connection with an altercation between the youth and Bedouins which occurred almost two years ago. Honenu Attorney Chai Haber, who is representing the youth, discovered that his client is no longer suspected of involvement with the Kfar Duma case.
The police demanded that the youth’s remand be extended by several additional days in order to facilitate filing an indictment. Honenu Attorney Chai Haber demanded that the court immediately release the youth in light of the extreme suffering he experienced during the interrogations, his emotional state, and the fact that in the end the act attributed to him is a very minor incident which occurred a long time ago, when he was a minor, and which he asserts was an act of self defense.
Throughout his interrogations the youth denied any involvement the Kfar Duma arson incident and complained that severe violence was used against him. During one of the interrogations, after he had been interrogated for almost three days straight, a GSS interrogator grabbed his head and pulled him backwards until he vomited and almost lost consciousness. A doctor who examined him determined that he was not fit to be interrogated, and yet he was immediately returned to the interrogation room and the abuse continued. See here for more information on abuse suffered by detainees in the Kfar Duma case.
Honenu leveled strong criticism against the conduct of the Attorney General’s office and of the police: “This is a scandal. After 29 days of severe interrogation by the GSS, sleep deprivation, and physical and emotional violence, it turned out that the only claim against the youth is involvement with an altercation with Bedouins almost two years ago! We hope that indeed an investigatory committee will be formed to examine the conduct of the GSS and the Israeli law enforcement authorities relevant to this case. How can the youth be compensated for the emotional damage caused to him?”