Three additional Yitzhar detainees in Boaz Albert case

Friday, October 18, 2013 Large number of forces from the National Unit of Serious and International Crime Investigations, the police and the GSS dragged out of bed and detained three residents of Yitzhar in front of their children on Thursday, October 17 at 2 A.M. on suspicion of disturbing the police as Boaz Albert was detained. The three detainees were unconditionally released within several hours.
The detainees responded angrily and demanded to remain in remand in order to stand before a judge and present their claims about the manner in which they were detained by the police.
“The police swarmed around our house as if I was a dangerous criminal took me out of my bed in front of my hysterical children,” one of the detainees said today.
“They could have summoned me during daylight hours for interrogation, but they preferred to send large numbers of police forces in the middle of the night in order to humiliate us. The absurdity of the situation is that it turned out that they didn’t have anything serious against us and therefore we were released within a short while. The lack of sensitivity is abominable. Someone has to put an end to this criminal policy of the police.”
On September 24 Albert was detained on suspicion of violating an administrative order. In order to thwart his detention he chained himself to a device mounted into the floor from which the police removed him after four and a half hours of intensive work with massive tools. A large group of supporters, three of whom were later detained on Thursday, October 17 on charges of assaulting policemen, gathered outside of Albert’s house in order to delay the police.
This is not the first time that the police have wasted resources on a raid without having substantial cause. On Tuesday, October 1 three Yitzhar residents were detained on a similar charge when dozens of police raided their homes in a pre-dawn raid. After they were taken to the Jewish Crime Division at the Central Unit of the Yehuda and Shomron Police it became clear that the police intended to release them on condition of posting bail after no evidence implicating them was found. The police asked the court to release them on condition of posting 3,000 NIS bail and the court ruled 300 NIS.
This time the police initially requested posting 300 NIS bail. Even that was not granted.
Honenu attorney Adi Kedar stated, “The Yehuda and Shomron District Police continue to conduct themselves scandalously. Instead of following the law and summoning people by normal means to interrogation the police decide time after time to conduct pre-dawn raids on people’s homes and to detain them by force and by surprise for interrogation.
In light of the above Honenu objects to posting bail as the police requested and subsequent to Honenu’s persistence the police agreed in the end to an unconditional release.
“We hope that the message will be heeded and that the raids will immediately cease. This is a police scandal, and this is not the first occurrence of this kind!”