No interrogation, but indictment filed against Ramat Migron arrestees

Monday, May 21, 18:49 Today an indictment was filed against two youths from the Ramat Migron outpost charged with assaulting a policeman. The two were arrested just before Shabbat last week after, according to the policemen, they refuse to leave the outpost despite a closed military zone order effective on the site. According to the police they violently resisted their removal from the site.
Just before Shabbat last week large forces of border police raided Ramat Migron, only hours after they had destroyed the home of one of the residents due to get married today (Monday). The policemen demanded that the youths leave the site due to the closed military zone order even though Shabbat had almost begun and they would not be able to reach their parents’ homes before Shabbat.
The youths also claimed that according to the two recent rulings by the Jerusalem Magistrate Court and the Jerusalem District Court stating that Jews are permitted to be residents of the outpost the policemen do not have authorization to remove them from the site being as they are permanent residents of the outpost.
The three arrested youths were taken by force to the detention center at the Russian Compound on Shabbat, despite their opposition to violating Shabbat. The parents of one of the arrestees, a minor 15 years of age, said that only after Shabbat did they learn of their son’s arrest, when the father noticed that on Friday night at 20:03, after Shabbat had begun, he had received a voice message from the police informing him of the arrest.
The arrestees were brought to the Jerusalem Magistrate Court on Saturday night after Shabbat at the demand of the police to extend the remand of two of them following the statement of prosecution on filing an indictment against them on charges of assaulting a policeman. The police are demanding that the third arrestee, a minor, be released on condition of a restraining order banning him from the site for half a year and placing a bond.
Despite the refusal of the arrestees to be interrogated on Shabbat, in order to prevent Shabbat violation, the police announced that they would file an indictment against them, even though no interrogation had been carried out. Despite Honenu attorney Adi Kedar’s plea that it is illogical that the police will formally announce their intention to issue an indictment without interrogating the suspects first, Judge Mac-Kalmanovitch extended the remand of the first two youths. The third youth, the minor, was released on condition of a restraining order banning him from Ramat Migron and placing a bond.
Honenu attorney Adi Kedar said in response that, “I regard with severity the fact that the police conducted an investigation for appearance’s sake only, even though they knew that the arrestees would not cooperate during interrogation, and on that basis filed an indictment. I am even more surprised that when the court was offered a viewing of a short video that would refute the claim by the police and due to the lateness of the hour (1:30 AM) refused. I am sure that later on this piece of evidence will be a significant and determining factor in the case.”
As stated above, today an indictment was filed against two of the arrestees on the charge of assaulting a policeman. In accordance with the police the two were released to house arrest until Wednesday, when a deliberation will take place concerning the evidence that the police has on the case. In today’s deliberation Honenu attorney David HaLevi will represent the arrestees.
Honenu responds that, “After the court greatly diminished the ability of the police to use closed military zone orders, the police found illegitimate means to circumvent the court’s decisions.”