Honenu is representing those who are insisting on the investigation of the death of Ahuvia Sandak, z”l, who was tragically killed in a police car chase on Tevet 6 5781/ December 21, 2020, and defending the many who are being detained while demonstrating for change in police behavior. The car Ahuvia was in with four other boys overturned when the police car collided with it from behind. Please click here for a list of posts connected to the case.
Monday, February 28, 2022, 10:59 “The plaintiff was caused extreme distress by the trampling of her rights, by the degrading treatment, by the personal insults shouted at her, and by the unnecessary delay of her release.”
In a compromise agreement, the police have been required to pay 6,000 NIS in compensation to a 14.5-year-old minor who was detained at a demonstration protesting the death of Ahuvia Sandak, z”l. Among numerous violations of her rights, she was illegally handcuffed. For a similar case, click here.
The minor was detained when she participated in a demonstration in the area of Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem approximately one year ago. During the demonstration, the protesters spilled onto the street for approximately sixty seconds and then returned to the sidewalk. Immediately afterwards, several policemen arrived, aggressively grabbed the girl and dragged her to the police car as they brutally shoved her friends who were standing next to her.
Next, the policemen failed to inform her parents that she, a minor, had been detained, despite the provisions of law and a directive obligating them to do so, did not summon her parents to be present at the interrogation. As a result, she was deprived of the right to be interrogated in their presence. The policemen also prevented her from seeing the officer in charge of examining the grounds for her detention and granting her a hearing.
While in remand, she was placed in a crowded cell with approximately ten other people and forced to sit on the floor. Policemen prevented her from going to the bathroom and refused her requests several times. After a long time, they handcuffed her to another detained girl, with whom she was not acquainted, and thus took her to the bathroom, which is described in the suit as a serious incident.
During the interrogation, which was conducted over eight hours after her detention, the policemen informed her parents that she had been detained. During interrogation, the detained minor asked to speak to her mother, but the interrogator refused and told her that only after the interrogation would she be able to call her.
The interrogator humiliated the minor with various harsh and harmful insults. She took advantage of the fact that the minor was alone and spoke to her callously and with contempt. She told the minor that she “looked stupid” and “idiotic”, laughed at her and told her that she had “tics”.
When the case reached the Jerusalem Magistrates Court, the two sides decided to come to a compromise agreement in which the police will pay the minor 6,000 NIS in compensation. Honenu’s Eladi Weisel, who filed the suit on behalf of the plaintiff, stated, “This was another incident in which the Israel Police violated the rights of detainees, and this time the victim was a young girl only 14 years old.
“It is shocking that such a young girl suffered a series of abuses by the Israel Police who trampled her rights, separated her from her parents, illegally handcuffed her, and humiliated her during interrogation. The harassment of and deprivation of basic legal rights from a 14-year-old detainee is the conduct of dark regimes and not appropriate for the State of Israel.”