Police ignore court decisions, Honenu plans to sue

Tuesday, March 10, 2015, 18:10 Honenu reports on another red line crossed by the Department of Nationalist Crime in the Central Unit of the Yehuda and Shomron Police. The police refused to obey two decisions by the Jerusalem District Court and did not release a youth from Bat Ayin detained the previous day.
On Monday, March 9 the Jerusalem District Court accepted the appeal filed by Honenu on the remand of a minor from Bat Ayin who was detained on March 8 and ordered his immediate release. Honenu was astounded to see that instead of releasing him investigators from the Central Unit of the Yehuda and Shomron Police decided to detain him again, before he had been released from the Russian Compound detention center, for the same incident on which the district court ruled, which is illegal.
Late at night three Honenu attorneys set to work handling the legal saga the likes of which Honenu has not seen for a long time. To start, Honenu rushed to file an urgent request with the Jerusalem District Court to order the immediate release of the youth. At 00:15 Judge Tamar Bazak-Rappaport accepted the request and ordered the release of the youth for the second time. However police investigators refused to carry out the decision. Honenu attorneys David HaLevi and Adi Kedar sent the court’s decision to officers at the Department of Nationalist Crime and at approximately 1:30 a representative of Honenu went to the offices of the Central Unit of the Yehuda and Shomron Police adjacent to Ma’aleh Adumim in order to confirm the release of the youth, however the officer in charge of investigations in the unit informed Kedar that he would not release the youth.
On the morning of Tuesday, March 10 Honenu filed an additional urgent request with the Jerusalem District Court and also demanded that the cost of legal expenses and compensation be imposed on the police because of their contempt of court. Judge Bazak-Rappaport scheduled a deliberation for the afternoon of the same day, during which she censured the police for their conduct and ruled that there was no cause to keep the minor in remand.
“I heard the claims of the police and I am of the opinion that they do not justify leaving the detainee in remand,” wrote Judge Bazak-Rappaport and noted that the police followed the “revolving door” method when they chose to detain the minor a second time immediately upon his release. Later in her decision the judge added that during the night she had ordered the minor released a second time, however “for an unclear reason the police found it correct to ignore the court’s decisions,” and that the conduct of the police causes “unease”.
During the deliberation Honenu attorney David HaLevi, who represented the youth, said that “It is difficult for me to find words to describe the conduct of the police. If the court makes a decision and the police disregard the decision we might as well close down the court. A civilized country does not operate like this and the police must be restrained because the people in charge there are not restrained.”
Honenu is enraged by the conduct of the police and intends to file a civil suit against the police for false detention and ignoring the orders made by the court. The possibility of a personal suit against the police investigators responsible for the false detention of the minor is being considered.
Honenu attorney David HaLevi: “The police are acting in a thuggish and scandalous manner. In practice they are rendering the decisions of the court powerless and doing whatever they want. The court released our client yesterday after an appeal was filed on his behalf and despite the clear decision by the [Jerusalem] District Court to release our client, the police refused to do so. We will take all of the necessary steps to prevent the repetition of a similar situation and to restrain the police, who are abusing the authority granted to them.”
Honenu attorney Adi Kedar, who also handled the case, stated that, “Over the past day the Department of Nationalist Crime has reached a new low in heavy-handed conduct. Violating the rights of minors and deriding court decisions all the while with the backing of high-ranking officers.”