A lawsuit has been filed against Israel Police for a false arrest by a woman forced to spend a difficult night in jail under disgraceful conditions, and for compelling her to submit to illegal and invasive searches. The lawsuit was filed in the Jerusalem Magistrate Court.

The plaintiff arrived with her friends to the “Cotton Gate” outside the walls of Har Habayis to Daven for the health of her brother, who served on the Lebanese border and was treated in the hospital due to a serious road accident. At some point she and a friend were taken in by police without an explanation as to why they were being detained.

The women were moved to Kishleh Station, where she claimed they were held in an open yard under harsh cold condition and only after waiting 7 hours, did she receive food, and then told she is under arrest. A shackle was then attached to her ankle and she was taken for questioning, and then told she was going to remain in the station until an arraignment hearing in the morning. Her request to send a message to her parents, so as not to waken them while they were at her brother’s bedside, was refused.

She spent remainder of the night in a chair with her hands and ankles cuffed. She was taken to the courthouse two hours before the hearing and was humiliated as passersby saw her cuffed and shackled, awaiting her hearing. Police demanded her remand while the court ordered her immediate release without restrictions.

Upon her return to the Kishleh station for her cell phone, which was taken from her, an officer told her the decision was made to hold on to her phone for 180 days. The phone was returned after the parents became involved, in addition to having to contend with remaining at the bedside of their son in a northern hospital.

The suit alleges that in the detention, the plaintiff’s freedom of worship was taken away unlawfully and without any cause, it was claimed that the plaintiff was detained without giving the cause of the delay and for more than three hours, her belongings were taken unnecessarily, she was held under harsh and unacceptable conditions as well as being humiliated and disgraced.

“The right to bed is a right in primary legislation and is an elementary human right, and to state that the plaintiff barely ate at the time of the arrest, and this is also unreasonable,” the suit adds.

The suit addresses unlawful inspections and the fact she was cuffed and shackled without justification. The law does not permit shackles at night when she wishes to sleep. The list continues, and she is seeking NIS 30,000 in damages.

Honenu Attorney Menashe Yado, representing the Plaintiff, stated: “The Plaintiff arrived at the gates of Har Habayis in order to be mispallel for her brother, an IDF combat officer who had a serious accident and who was in intensive care and without any fault in of her own. She stayed at the Kishleh station on a stone bench during with legs shackled during the night while committing a long line of wrongs and breaches of the law and hence the prosecution.

“We are confident that this claim, together with proceedings in other matters, will eventually lead to a ‘renewal of procedures’ at the station, which will allow for more real freedom of movement for Jews in the Old City at the end of the day.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)