The following media release was published by Honenu regarding the arrest on Wednesday, Rosh Chodesh Shevat 5772.
Yesterday (Wednesday) evening, D’, a Kiryat Arba resident approximately 60 years of age, arrived at the Mitzpei Avichai hilltop near Kiryat Arba in order to collect equipment belonging to his daughter, a resident of the hilltop.
Border policemen stationed at the entrance to the hilltop informed him that the area is a closed military zone and presented him with the order. D’ looked at the order, and according to him asked to examine the order so as to allow him to understand the borders of the zone because the map was not clear. However as he was examining the order, border policemen assaulted him and claimed that he had wrinkled it and therefore disturbed a policemen in the line of duty. A border police officer arrived and demanded that D’ present his ID card, but he explained that his card was not on him.
In response the policeman pulled out handcuffs and informed him that he would be detained for interrogation. D’ was loaded onto a Jeep handcuffed and taken to the Hebron police station.
Upon completion of the interrogation at the Hebron police station on suspicion of disturbing a policeman in the line of duty, the police interrogators requested that D’ be released on condition of a restraining order banning him from entering Mitzpei Avichai for 15 days, however D’ refused, claiming that the detainment was illegal. At this stage the police interrogators informed Honenu that D’ would remain in remand overnight and be brought to court in the morning.
Honenu attorney Rechavia Piltz hurried to the court at 2:00 a.m. and filed an urgent appeal on D’s remand. Judge Arnon Darel scheduled the deliberation for the appeal at 6:00 a.m.
At 6:00 a.m. D’ was brought to court, where Honenu attorney Piltz pleaded that there had been no cause for his arrest because his only wrongdoing was examining the order for a long time, to the displeasure of the policemen. Additionally Piltz explained that there was no cause for the restraining order.
Judge Darel accepted Piltz’s plea and ruled that it was impossible to determine whether or not there had definitely been a reasonable chance that he had committed a misdemeanor, and additionally there was no cause for the restraining order being as the restraining order is not relevant to the misdemeanor of disturbing a policemen in the line of duty, for which he was interrogated on Wednesday. At the end of the deliberation D’ was unconditionally released.
Honenu reported that “It appears that the police have decided to fight the outposts in any way possible, injuring the rights of the residents and placing baseless restraining orders. This was a superfluous arrest of an older man who had committed no crime. We are happy that the court accepted our pleas.”
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
Thank you very much Honenu. You do valuable work to protect innocent Israelis from the harassment of the police. You helped my innocent son from a police beating and arrest many years ago and I will always be grateful.