On the morning of Tuesday 6 Tammuz, Shin Bet interrogators extended by 48 additional hours the ban on meeting with an attorney placed on the two minors detained in Migdal HaEmek on Sunday morning.

Honenu Attorney Adi Kedar filed an appeal on the decision with the Nazareth District Court in which he stressed that the ban is a severe violation of the minors’ basic rights. The third minor in the case, who was detained on Monday, is also forbidden to meet with an attorney.

On Monday the Nazareth Magistrate Court only partially accepted the police demand to extend the remand of the first two minors by eight days. Judge Ilanit Imber extended their remand by three days. Attorney Lior Bar-Zohar, who is representing the minors on behalf of Honenu, said that “In our opinion this proves that the accusations are baseless. We are certain that in the coming days justice will be served and the minors will be released.”

Details of the case and the detainees are under a gag order. The police stated that the case involves an incident of “nationalistic crime”.

Honenu released a statement which said: “Once again minors have been taken to an ISA facility and forbidden to meet with an attorney, an extreme step which violates their basic right to legal representation. Democratic rights in Israel are being trampled and no-one is raising even the slightest protest.

“We have already seen how Kochav HaShachar’s youth coordinator, a recipient of the President’s Award For Excellence in the IDF, was held in remand by the Shin Bet for over 10 days under severe conditions as if he were the worst terrorist and then, six months later, the Attorney General’s office formally acknowledged what Honenu had asserted from the very first moment he was detained: the youth coordinator never had any connection to any violation of the law.

“This situation should make anyone who cares about citizens’ rights lose sleep. Unfortunately, it appears that the public has not yet internalized the severity of the matter.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)