Two detained in Gush Etzion

Thursday, January 2, 2020, 11:53 During the early morning hours of Thursday, January 2, an approximately 18-year-old youth was detained by the Central Unit of the Yehuda and Shomron Police in the Gush Etzion region as he was traveling by car. He was transferred to the GSS and has been served with an order prohibiting him to meet with an attorney for four days. A minor, 15 years of age, was detained with him. It is not yet clear what the reason for their detention is.
In the afternoon both youths will be brought to the Petah Tikva Magistrates Court for a deliberation. Honenu Attorneys Nati Rom and Adi Keidar will represent them.
Honenu Attorney Nati Rom leveled sharp criticism at the GSS: “Again the GSS has used a drastic, anti-democratic tool against a Jewish youth. Today I requested a meeting with the [approximately 18-year-old] youth. I was forbidden to meet with him and presented with an order which prohibits him to meet with an attorney for four days. I met with the minor. During his detention violence was used on him and his parents were not allowed to be present during his interrogation, in violation of the law. As of now it is not clear why they were detained. Today in court we will demand their release.”
Update – Thursday, January 2, 2020, 16:37
On the afternoon of Thursday, January 2, Petah Tikva Magistrates Court Judge Ophir Katavii-Rivlin rejected the police request to extend by eight days the remand of the minor who was detained the previous night in Gush Etzion and ordered his release to several days of house arrest. Judge Katavii-Rivlin acceded to the police request to delay the release so that they could consider filing an appeal.
The remand of the adult, who is under an order prohibiting him from meeting with an attorney, has been extended until Monday, after the court only partially accepted the police request for an extension. The adult was also detained last night in Gush Etzion. The police claim the minor and the adult had planned to carry out a price tag incident. Honenu Attorneys Nati Rom and Adi Keidar represented the detainees.
Keidar spoke after the deliberation: “The youths were detained out of hysteria and panic by the security authorities in the wake of recent price tag incidents. According to the decisions handed down by the court today it was made clear that there is no connection between the suspects and the price tag incidents. The claim is only that they planned to do something. Nothing was done and nothing was found. The court released the minor, the remand of the adult was extended for only a short period of time, and I hope that also he will be released in the end.”
Rom added, “We are pleased that the court was not impressed by the many charges and clauses in the request filed by the Israeli Police concerning the minor, and ruled that there was no reasonable suspicion of his involvement with this incident. The intolerable ease with which the Israeli Police, and the Central Unit of the Yehuda and Shomron Police in particular, violently detain youths 15 years of age, even when there is no visible connection between them and any incident, raises questions, especially when drastic orders preventing meeting with an attorney have been served. We hope that the selective and massive use and enforcement of orders will stop immediately.”