Honenu Attorney Shimshilashvilli; Photo credit: Honenu
Sunday, October 13, 2024, 14:04 Last Thursday, the GSS detained two 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.
When Honenu Attorney Daniel Shimshilashvilli, who is representing the minor, finally met with his client he heard from him that the interrogators had attempted to extract a false confession from him. Attorney Shimshilashvilli described the harsh conditions under which the minor was held: “I heard from the minor a litany of severe abuse. They physically harmed him, humiliated him and deprived him of food. Their intent was to break his resolve and extract from him a false confession to acts that he denies committing.”
Attorney Shimshilashvilli added, “I sincerely hope that this case will prompt soul searching among the authorities that crudely and repeatedly violate the rights of Yehuda and Shomron residents who are considered innocent under the law. The interrogation methods that they are using were intended solely for terrorists, and I suggest that their use be reserved only for them. We will not tolerate the attempt to make a false equivalence between Israel’s supporters and detractors for the purpose of placating any internal factor or foreign government in the name of the rationale that was proven to be erroneous. The rationale exploded in our faces with the massacre on Simhat Torah [October 7].”