On the afternoon of Wednesday, 6 Adar, the Petah Tikva Magistrate Court ordered the release of the youth detained the previous night during a police raid on Yeshivat Od Yosef Chai in Yitzhar.

The youth was interrogated on suspicion of involvement with an incident in which the tire of an army truck was punctured during a delivery of equipment to border policemen who had taken over the beis midrash of the yeshiva; the seizure warrant has been in effect since April 2014. During interrogation the youth denied all charges and was later brought to court.

During the deliberation Honenu attorney Adi Kedar, who represented the youth, leveled harsh criticism at the police representative. In conversations between Kedar and the police interrogators before the deliberation they informed him that they intended to request the conditional release of the youth, however during the deliberation they suddenly demanded a five-day remand extension. The court suggested to the police that they come to an agreement concerning the release of the youth, and the police interrogator requested that the youth be released to house arrest. Kedar refused, and in the end the judge ordered the youth released on condition of a restraining order banning him from entering Yitzhar for 10 days.

Honenu attorney Adi Kedar responded: “Again we are witness to scandalous conduct on the part of the Yehuda and Shomron District Police, who invest for naught huge budgets in the Department of Nationalist Crime.

Again no explanation was given for why the police waited a week and then carried out the detention in the middle of the night instead of summoning the minor and his parents to an interrogation. At the end of the day, after the court rejected the police request, a release was agreed on condition that in the coming days the youth will be banned from entering Yitzhar until completion of the investigation. In the end the court even rejected the alternative demand by the police of house arrest and bail.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)