The Jerusalem Magistrate Court on Tuesday, 8 Nissan 5773 rejected a police request to extend the remand of a minor detained earlier in the day at Yeshivat Yerushalayim L’Tzeirim in Kiryat Moshe, Jerusalem.

The minor is accused of involvement with an assault on an Arab near the high school yeshiva and is being represented by attorney Itamar Ben-Givir on behalf of Honenu. The judge accepted Ben-Givir׳s plea, according to which the police themselves do not mention a racist motivation, which lessens the severity of the charge. The judge also ruled that the considerable length of time since the misdemeanor was carried out should be taken into consideration because the suspect could have disrupted the investigation during the time that he had not yet been detained.

However, in order to facilitate the investigation the judge ordered that the detainee remain in remand until the evening and then be released to house arrest. Ben-Givir states, “Once again the Jerusalem Police are operating only out of motivation to make a good impression in the news. There is no logic in detaining a suspect two weeks after a misdemeanor has been carried out and then requesting a remand extension claiming that he is liable to disrupt the investigation.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)