Another detention in the case of the assault on police detectives in Kiryat Moshe, Jerusalem ended quietly with the release of the detainee, Honenu reports.

Following a raid on Monday, May 13, at Yeshivat Yerushalayim L’Tzeirim in Kiryat Moshe, Jerusalem, a 17 year old twelfth grade yeshiva student reported for interrogation at the Moriah Police Station in Jerusalem. The minor was interrogated on suspicion of being involved with the assault on Arab police detectives on the day (April 30) of Evyatar Borovsky’s murder. On Tuesday, May 14 Judge Mordechai Kaduri ruled that the evidence against the student was weak and he would therefore be released.

On Tuesday, April 30 a short time after the murder of Evyatar Borovsky, HY”D, at Tapuach Junction, a scuffle developed between undercover police detectives and youths in Kiryat Moshe, Jerusalem. According to the police the detectives, who were plain-clothed and spoke Arabic between themselves, were assaulted by several youths in response to the murder. According to eye witnesses the detectives attempted to cause a provocation which would lead to an incident resulting in the arrest of right-wing activists. After the detectives were assaulted, they drew their pistols and with their pistols drawn chased the fleeing youths. A yeshiva student passing by was grabbed, beaten and detained by the detectives on suspicion that he was involved with the assault. The detainee was released after two days of remand after it was clarified that he was only passing by the scene and not involved with the incident.

On Monday, May 13, police forces raided the home of an additional student of Yeshivat Yerushalayim L’Tzeirim who resides in Ofra. The policemen, who did not present a detention warrant claiming that they forgot it, informed the student’s parents that he was wanted for interrogation at the Moriah Police Station in Jerusalem. Later the same day, the Jerusalem Police raided Yeshivat Yerushalayim L’Tzeirim during an English Bagrut (matriculation) exam being given to the group to which the student wanted for interrogation belonged. The student had already taken the exam several months earlier and therefore was not present at the time. When it became known to him that he was wanted for interrogation the student of his volition reported in the afternoon to the Moriah Police Station where he was interrogated on suspicion of involvement with the assault on the two police detectives. The police decided to demand a remand extension and kept him in remand overnight.

On the morning of Tuesday, May 14, the student, a minor, was brought to the Jerusalem Juvenile Court where the police demanded an additional remand extension of four days. Judge Mordechai Kaduri accepted the plea of Honenu attorney Aharon Roza, who is representing the student, and rejected the demand. The judge ruled that the remand of the student would be extended only until four in the afternoon, in order to give the police time to complete their investigation. The judge also ruled that the student would be released to house arrest until the following Monday. According to Judge Kaduri the evidence in the hands of the police was weak and there was no cause to extend the remand for additional days, particularly since the student was a minor with no criminal record and the Shavuot holiday started that evening. The student was released to his home in the afternoon.

The Jerusalem Police are continuing to search for those involved with the incident in which two undercover police detectives who spoke to each other in Arabic in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood of Jerusalem on the day (April 30) that Evyatar Borovsky, was murdered were assaulted.

In response to the court’s ruling Honenu attorney Aharon Roza said that, “The decision of the court is proportional and just. There is no justification for the police request an extension of the remand of the minor by four days, especially since the evidence is not strong. Additionally, if it turns out that this is another incident in which the police set up a provocation shortly after the murder of a Jew, then this is a procedure based on defective reasoning which unnecessarily endangers Jews.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)