Ma’on couple detained

Monday, March 9, 2015, 15:30 A mother of two children (approximately 25 years old) whose husband was detained earlier in the afternoon, was detained by police detectives on the afternoon of Monday, March 9 in a police raid on her home in the community of Ma’on. Honenu reports that the police detectives presented her with a detention warrant and took her for interrogation to the Department of Nationalist Crime in the Central Unit of the Yehuda and Shomron Police. Her two young children were left in the care of a neighbor A Honenu attorney hurried to the police station in order to give legal counsel to the detainee, whose cell phone was taken from her.
The woman’s husband was detained earlier when police detectives raided the yeshiva at which he learns in Kiryat Arba. He was taken for interrogation to the Central Unit of the Yehuda and Shomron Police and told that he is suspected of cutting down olive trees belonging to Arabs two weeks previously. He denied all charges and spoke to Honenu attorney Adi Kedar.
Honenu strongly criticizes the detention of the wife and notes that in the past detentions such as this have been carried out in order to apply emotional pressure on family members who were detained and are being questioned.
Honenu: “This is a scandal and indicates complete hysteria among the police. In recent days we have witnessed a rise in the number of instances of harassment of residents by the Yehuda and Shomron Police and this is a new record high. In our experience the purpose of a detention of this kind is to apply emotional pressure on a detainee – an inappropriate act by any measure.”
Honenu recommends that Yehuda and Shomron community leaders intervene: “We call on community leaders in Yehuda and Shomron to work towards stopping police harassment of the residents, and to demand the immediate release of the wife.”