Yitzhar minor still harassed by police

Monday, July 25, 2016, 18:57 The Yitzhar minor under house arrest at night and distanced from his own home was detained before dawn, again, on a pretext that he had violated the conditions of his release from remand. See here for a post on the previous pre-dawn detention. The Petah Tikva Magistrate Court, again, ordered his release. A discussion concerning his situation has been scheduled with the Knesset Committee for the Rights of the Child. On July 6 the minor visited the Knesset with his father and Shmuel (Zangi) Meidad, the director of Honenu.  Honenu Attorney Chai Haber: “We all hope that soon the authorities will come to their senses and understand that they cannot just throw a minor out of his home and onto the street.”
On Monday, July 25, before dawn, policemen and detectives from the Central Unit of the Yehuda and Shomron Police arrived at the address at which the minor spent the night in the city of Karmiel, and took the minor to the Karmiel Police Station.
At the station the policemen claimed that the minor had violated the conditions set by the Central District Court in Lod because he had been late in sending a fax to update the police of his whereabouts for the night. The minor is under house arrest at night and is permitted to stay at a different location, outside of Yehduda and Shomron, every other day.
In an afternoon deliberation at the Petah Tikva Magistrate Court the police demanded that the minor be detained until the end of proceedings. At some point during the deliberation Judge Hannah Schnitzer-Zaga refused to continue and obligated the representatives of the prosecution, Attorneys Nadav Shaham and Assi Ben-Harush, to come to an agreement with Honenu Attorney Chai Haber, who is representing the minor.
After a discussion it was agreed that the demand made by the police will be rejected and the minor will be released under the existing release conditions. The minor must inform the police in advance of where he will be spending the night. Also it was agreed that the police will refrain from checking the address at which he is staying late at night. The police have been repeatedly making house checks at hours which are very disruptive to the host families.
Haber stated after the deliberation that, “It appears that all of the security issues in the country have been solved. How else could it be that the law enforcement authorities choose to invest so much effort in a 15-year old youth without a criminal record?
“Unfortunately the police have chosen to make house checks on the youth almost every day at the location at which he is staying under house arrest, very late at night. Then they complain that the youth has to change his address because the host families ask him to find another place due to harassment by the police.”
Haber added that, “Sadder still is that one time when the minor did not have a place to sleep and went to the police station for assistance in finding a place to stay, instead of helping him, they opened another case against him for violation of release conditions.
“We all hope that soon the authorities will come to their senses and understand that they cannot just throw a minor out of his home and onto the street without providing a suitable arrangement, taking into account that the youth has been distanced from his own home.”
Also on Monday, July 25, the Knesset Secretariat authorized the request of Knesset Members Betzalel Smotrich and Rabbi Yehuda Glick to hold an urgent deliberation on the minor’s case with the Knesset Committee for the Rights of the Child. The deliberation will be scheduled within 10 days.
Six days previously the conduct of the police prompted Petah Tikva Magistrate Judge Erez Nurieli to stop the deliberation after the prosecutor finished speaking and write in the court records a very unusual statement: “The court remarks that it feels as if it is in a day-care center.” See more here.