Scandalous police conduct in Ephraim Brigade incident investigation

Sunday, January 15, 18:02 The two detainees detained in the early morning hours on suspicion of involvement with the Ephraim Brigade incident have been released after giving an alibi. Honenu reports that the conduct of the police was scandalous.
During the afternoon the two youths, one a resident of Efrat and the other a resident of Givat Ronen, were released. They had been detained early in the morning on suspicion of entering the Ephraim Brigade base during the protest incident which occurred approximately one month ago.
Honenu reports that the detention warrants for the two were issued on December 15th, one month ago. For an unknown reason the police decided to detain the two only this morning, perhaps to create an appearance of development in the investigation.
Additionally it became known that the reason for their detention was the fact that an IDF officer pointed to their photographs in a police album and – falsely – identified them as having participated in the Ephraim Brigade incident. The two, who are not connected to the incident in any way, gave an alibi and were released.
Last week the police detained an additional youth, a Jerusalem resident, on a similar suspicion, who was released after giving an alibi. Also in this case it became known that an IDF officer pointed to his photograph in a police album and – falsely – identified him. It must be noted this photograph is from 8 years ago, when the youth was 17 years old. This insignificant detail and the fact that his appearance is now different to the point of being unrecognizable did not prevent the police from detaining him in the middle of the night as if he was the last of the criminals and to formally announce to the media that, “another detainee in the saga is in the hands of the Yehuda and Shomron District Police”.
Honenu reported in response that the conduct of the police was scandalous. “The police are detaining people in their homes, in the early morning, as if they were the last of the criminals, and it later becomes known that all that connects them to the incident is that an IDF officer pointed to their photographs. In a civilized state a suspect is summoned for investigation in order to verify his claims and there is no need to break into homes at four o’clock in the morning. All of the detainees gave alibis and were released. It appears that the only reason for their detention was to produce a few more headlines in the media about detentions carried out by the police, when in reality they do not have any leads in the case.”