Detainee taken from Yitzhar Junction to Hevron Police Station

Tuesday, July 17, 17:40. Yesterday, A. was detained at the Yitzhar Junction after he showed his ID card upon request from border policemen. The policemen informed A. that he was wanted for interrogation and immediately detained him. A. was taken from the junction to the Hevron Police Station where he was wanted for interrogation.
According to the police they had tried for several months to track down A. but had been unsuccessful. A. was interrogated for an entire day on suspicion of involvement with assaulting a foreign worker in Hevron approximately one and a half years ago. Under interrogation A. denied all charges. At the end of the interrogation the police agreed to release A. on condition that he pay 2,000 NIS cash bail in order to ensure that he continue to appear for interrogation. A., who insisted that there was no justification for demanding cash bail, and also is not able to post such a large sum in cash, refused the demand of the police. Subsequent to A.’s refusal to post the demanded sum he remained in remand until the following morning.
Today, A. was brought to the Jerusalem Magistrate Court before Judge Dorit Feinstein. As stated the police, who took into consideration the fact that A. had not appeared for interrogation until now, demanded 2,000 NIS cash bail in order to ensure that A. would appear for interrogation if summoned. The police were forced to admit in the deliberation, in response to a question asked by Honenu attorney Adi Kedar who is representing the detainee, that as far as they were concerned the interrogation had been completed. Kedar also asked if A. had received an official summons to interrogation and again the police admitted that he had not been summoned according to the procedure set by law.
Judge Feinstein rejected the demand of the police. “The request for the detainee to post his own cash bail is rejected being as I did not find cause to require cash bail, especially not such a large sum as the detainee does not have a significant criminal record and there was no summons as required by law,” reasoned the judge in her decision. By agreement with the defense attorney the judge ruled that A. would be under a restraining order banning him from the area of Yehuda for 60 days and that a third party would guarantee his bail.