Honenu Attorney Moshe Poleski; Photo credit: Honenu
Sunday, October 13, 2024, 16:08 This morning (Sunday), the Jerusalem Magistrates Court released to house arrest a Shomron resident who was detained by the GSS at Ben Gurion Airport upon his return from Uman five days ago. The detainee was initially prevented from meeting with an attorney. Honenu Attorney Moshe Poleski, who is representing the detainee, appealed the decision. Last night, after Shabbat, only a matter of hours before a hearing on the appeal, the detainee was allowed to meet with an attorney. The detainee had been barred from meeting with an attorney for four days, during which time he was interrogated under severe conditions.
Attorney Poleski described the feelings of the detainee: “Last night, I was informed that my client was allowed to meet with an attorney. I came to a young man who described interrogations under severe conditions intended to break his spirit and cause him to falsely confess to acts that he had not committed. During all of Yom Kippur, he was held in solitary and not even given a prayer book, which was against an explicit order from the Jerusalem District Court. This is simply an embarrassment and a disgrace.”
Attorney Poleski added, “Lifting the ban on meeting an attorney before the Supreme Court hearing proves that there had been no need for it and that it was intended to be a tool in the hands of the GSS to break the resolve of the Yehuda and Shomron residents who were detained on suspicion of taking part in an incident several months ago. The time has come for GSS investigators to deal with the terror raging throughout Israel and not persecute Yehuda and Shomron residents. The investigating unit announced now that they would not appeal the decision to release my client. The court also cited that the charges against the detainee had not been substantiated while he was under interrogation, which indicates that he will not be indicted. We can only regret that a youth without a criminal record was forced to spend Yom Kippur in remand, even though it was obvious that he could have been released beforehand.”
Last Thursday, the GSS detained two additional Yehuda and Shomron residents, one of whom is a minor, returning home from Uman at Ben Gurion Airport. The adult detainee was taken to a police station and released from there. The minor was taken in for interrogation by the Yehuda and Shomron Police and initially forbidden to meet with an attorney. The Jerusalem Magistrates Court released him, but the police appealed the decision. On Friday, the Jerusalem District Court rejected the appeal and the minor was released to house arrest several hours before the onset of Yom Kippur.