Monday, June 25, 17:18 A couple in their late 40’s were detained yesterday (Sunday) in Jerusalem on suspicion of the husband’s involvement with vandalizing Arab property approximately six months ago, Honenu reports. Eye witnesses say that the police conducted themselves very violently. The couple was taken to the Moriah Police Station where they were interrogated.
Yesterday afternoon R. and his wife S. received a telephone call from a neighbor who told them that three men wearing civilian clothes, thugs
according to his description, looked for them at their house and banged on their door. The neighbor knew who they were and what they wanted. R. is a 49 year old kashrut supervisor and his wife S. is a head nurse at one of Jerusalem’s hospitals. Later in the afternoon the couple returned home. The three men were still there and approached the couple. The men asked the husband what his name is and he replied that they should identify themselves first. After they presented police badges R. showed them his ID card.
After the three policemen informed R. that he was detained he and his wife asked them if they had a warrant and what the charges are. The policemen presented a folded piece of paper, claiming that it was a warrant, and added that they would be informed of the charges at the police station.
At this point S. noticed that they policemen were approaching her husband in a threatening manner. She tried to move closer to him in order to protect him and then, according to her, one of the policemen forcefully pushed her. Subsequently S. suffered injuries to her neck and one of her fingers.
One of the policemen told his colleague to take out handcuffs and then the three jumped on R. and severely beat him, damaging one of the parked cars
in the process. Afterwards they knocked R. to the ground and as they continued to beat him, handcuffed him. During the detention R. was badly injured in all parts of his body, including a broken nose and also his glasses were broken. After they finished detaining R. the policemen informed his wife that she was also detained, because she had attacked them.
S. relates that her husband did not resist the detention in any way and certainly did not attack the policemen. The couple were detained and taken to the Moriah Police Station in Jerusalem. After several hours of interrogation S. was released. R. remained the night in remand. He was interrogated on suspicion of involvement with “price tag” incidents involving damage to Arab property. The police did not have evidence but rather relied on “intelligential information”.
Today (Monday) R. was brought to a deliberation at the Jerusalem Magistrate Court. The police demanded a four day remand extension. Honenu attorney David HaLevi, who represented R., pleaded at the deliberation that the detention was violent and unnecessary, lacking evidence and therefore R. should be released. The judge rejected the police demand of a remand extension but due to the “severity of the accusations” sent R. to 30 days of house arrest.
Honenu attorney David HaLevi replied that, “This was a serious incident in which the police used unrestrained violence on my client for no visible reason. My client suffered from serious injuries including a broken nose due to the violence conduct of the police and that is a most unreasonable outcome of a detention, especially when the detainee is a normative adult with absolutely no criminal record who has never had any dealings with the law enforcement system. The incident itself has been recorded and we intend to file a strong complaint with the Police Investigation Unit in order that they examine the conduct of the police during the incident. Also the court was aware of the police conduct during the incident and the fact that they gave it expression during the deliberation and in the decision to release my client, despite the serious accusations made against him, speaks for itself. In our humble behavior the police are groping in the dark and the detention of my client was carried out without a basis of genuine evidence against him and the decision to release him supports this.”