The Jerusalem Magistrate Court ordered the release of the six youths detained on Sunday, 12 Shevat on Har Habayis and also ruled that “it was not necessary to keep them in remand for an entire night.” Honenu says “We will file suit against the police.”

The Jerusalem Magistrate Court accepted Honenu’s pleas and criticized the conduct of the police concerning the six youths detained on Har Habayis on the morning of February 1. According to the youths, whose testimony is supported by video clips presented to the court, Waqf personnel and other Arabs assaulted and cursed them. The police claimed that the youths did not obey the orders of the policemen and therefore they were detained.

On Sunday, 12 Shevat Honenu filed urgent appeals with the Jerusalem Magistrate and District Courts demanding that the youths be released in the evening and not be held in remand overnight at the detention center in the Russian Compound, especially since the police already intended to demand their conditional release. The courts rejected Honenu’s appeals. The six youths were held overnight in remand and on Monday, 13 Shevat they were brought to a deliberation at which the police demanded that they be released on condition of a restraining order banning them from the holy site for 60 days and posting bail.

Honenu attorney Sinaiya Moses-Harizi, who represented the youths, demanded their unconditional release, and to support her plea, presented video clips in which Waqf personnel are seen cursing the group, to the court.

Additionally Moses-Harizi addressed the fact that the detainees spent a night in remand without cause.

Jerusalem Magistrate Court Judge Gioia Skappa-Shapiro ruled that concerning three of the youths there was not a reasonable suspicion that they had violated the law and ordered them unconditionally released. Judge Skappa-Shapiro ruled that the other three would be given a restraining order banning them from Har Habayis for one month and accepted Moses-Harizi’s claims concerning holding the six youths in remand overnight, ruling that “this conduct [of the police] was wrong”.

“From the time that it was decided to conditionally release the defendants, it would have been appropriate to release them under conditions within the authority of the police officer. A request for setting more stringent conditions which are within the authority of the court could have been filed while the defendants were released. It was not necessary to keep them in remand for an entire night,” wrote Judge Skappa-Shapiro.

Honenu announced that it would file a suit against the police for holding the youths in remand with no cause, and stressed that this is standard conduct on the part of the police.

Honenu attorney Sinaiya Moses-Harizi responded: “The entire reason for this detention was the concern that violence would break out among the Arabs, with no topical justification whatsoever. It is very unfortunate that the policy makers reward Arab violence and trample basic human rights. The six youths were held in a completely unwarranted detention. None of them have a criminal record and five of them are minors. I regard this detention as a most serious incident in which the police abused their authority.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)