Minor finally located, meeting with attorney banned

Thursday, April 26, 2018, 21:40 On the morning of Thursday, April 26, three Honenu Attorneys unsuccessfully attempted for several hours to locate an approximately 15-year-old minor who had been detained on April 24 on suspicion of damaging Arab property several months previously in the Jerusalem area. The police transferred the attorneys from official to official and later issued an order preventing the minor from meeting with them.
At some point during the search, interrogators from the Central Unit of the Yehuda and Shomron Police informed the Honenu Attorneys that the minor was being held at the Russian Compound. Honenu Attorney Nati Rom arrived at the detention center and discovered that the police had misled him; the minor was not there.
After an urgent request by Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar to the Jerusalem Magistrate Court demanding that the police allow an attorney to immediately meet with the minor, Judge Richter ordered the police to do so. Following the judge’s decision the police issued an order forbidding the minor to meet with an attorney. The police also announced that the minor was being interrogated at the Central Unit of the Jerusalem Police.
Due to the unusual circumstances Judge Richter called an urgent deliberation for the afternoon of the same day, at which he censured the police for their conduct and noted that because of the order the deliberation must be transferred to the Jerusalem District Court.
Honenu Attorney David HaLevi then submitted an urgent request to the Jerusalem District Court, which scheduled a deliberation for the morning of the following day. As of the posting of this item the police have refused to transfer a copy of the order to the attorneys representing the minor.
“The detainee is an approximately 15-year-old minor, who does not have a criminal record, and this is the first time he has been detained. The situation concerning the conduct of the police is very unusual,” said HaLevi.
HaLevi added that, “The police in this case are allowing themselves to do whatever comes to mind. This morning we asked to meet with the minor and speak to him. The police gave us the run-around from the morning until the afternoon in an attempt to prevent us from seeing our client. Only in the afternoon were we informed, to our great dismay, that someone in the police department had issued an order preventing a meeting with an attorney.
“I would like to reiterate that the detainee is a minor, approximately 15 years old, without a criminal record and he has never been detained previously. Because of the heavy-handed and unrestrained conduct of the police we are being forced over and over again to demand the most basic and elementary right of a detainee being interrogated, all the more so with regards to such a young detainee. We expect the court to make a statement on this matter shortly.”