Ofer - Release on Bail, Stone Throwing

Translation: Marganit W.

Morning and Afternoon

Prosecutor Lieut.-Col. Morris Hirsch on the case of Khalida Jarrar, member of the Palestinian Parliament: “It is a tragedy that the accused is under administrative detention so that the defense and other agencies are conducting a global campaign.”

Shosh Kahn (Women for Women Prisoners) and I came here on Wednesday expecting that Khalida Jarrar’s hearing would not take place today because it has been postponed. But when we arrived we found out that the judge had not consented to a postponement.

Atty. Mahmoud received a hasty phone call, as did Khalida’s sister and her husband, who showed up in court.

A TV crew was there too: the “”global campaign” to release the MP continues.

Judge: Major Rani Aamar

Prosecutor: Lieut.- Col. Morris Hirsch

Defense: Haled Araj, Muhammad Hassan, Sahar Francis

Defendant: Khalida Kenaan Muhammad Jarrar, ID 946614138 - Case 3038/15

Atty. Hassan moved to postpone the hearing. The voluminous material the defense had requested from the prosecution had just arrived. Two days earlier, the sides had agreed on a postponement, so they now plan to appeal to the Chief Justice to defer the hearing to the end of next week.

The prosecutor disagrees with Atty. Hassan claiming that the indictment is based on statements included in the original investigation. Here the prosecutor spoke heatedly about the tragedy of the administrative detention imposed on the defendant, stressing that the proper thing to do is to initiate criminal proceedings right away. Some of the charges are: holding a position (in a proscribed association) and membership and activity in a terror organization.

Atty. Hassan brought up the defendant’s medical condition, the confinement in the transport vehicle for 6 hours without access to bathroom, and being tied to a chair until a very late hour.

No date was set for the next hearing.

See earlier report on Jarrar’s case in, as well as the attached protocol (Hebrew)

Judge: Major Haim Balilti

Prosecutor: Lieutenant Raphael Shafransky

Defense: Atty. Nery Ramati

Defendants:

Zein Hashem Halil Abu Maria, ID 854841111 - Case 1789/15

Muhammad Ahmed Halil Abu Hashem, ID 859493918 - Case 1767/15

Zein and Muhammad are two youngsters from Beit Ummar, detained since 11.2.15.

They are charged with throwing rocks sometime between the end of June 2014 and August 2014. They deny the allegations, so the prosecution summoned one of its witnesses to testify today. He is Ibrahim Yussef Ayad Kokas. The witness is also detained and was brought here from jail.

It is hard to describe what happened in the court when the witness entered: he is a friend of the defendants and yet he incriminated them.

Zein’s father and Muhammad’s mother and aunt were present in court. There was no hostility between the families, the defendants and the witness. It was clear to everyone under what circumstances the police and the Shabak (GSS) extract statements from witnesses.

The witness was very conflicted, but Atty. Ramati explained that he (Ramati) represents Zein and Muhammad, and he needs to hear the details from him. Toward the end, things became clearer.

Question: I see in the file that at one point in the interrogation you were put in a cell with a lot of people.

Answer: Yes.

Q: Is it true that you were told: if you admit that you did certain things, it means that you are a collaborator.

A: Yes.

Q: Did they ask you whom you know in the village?

A: Yes.

Q: And the Shabak interrogator already knew everything you had told the

police plants?

It was a long hearing, but it is always instructive to learn the methods used to incriminate detainees in this  so-called legal system.

The next hearing is set for 13.5.15.

Judge: Lieut.-Col. Moshe Levi

Prosecutor: Pasek Rostislav

Defense: Atty. Nery Ramati

Detainee: Muhammad Adeeb Ahmad Abu Rahmeh, ID 859218091 - Case 3268/15

Hearing concerning remand extension until the conclusion of the investigation.

Muhammad Abu Rahmeh was detained at Allenby Bridge.

This is one of the most absurd cases I have every witnessed. A young man from a respected family in the village, who owns a store and makes a decent living, is accused of selling a gas grenade for 20 shekels. This is called “trading in battle materiel.” The prosecution alleges that the sale was done in August 2014. He is also accused of throwing rocks and gas grenades during “a disturbance of the peace” (a reference to the weekly demonstrations staged since 2005in Bil’in to protest the separation wall). There were similar other allegations.

Except for one violation, all the evidence in the file was before the prosecution when the detainee was previously arrested in 2014. He was interrogated by the Shabak for 30 days, then released unconditionally. If he is so dangerous, why wasn’t the accused arrested by the security forces earlier instead of on his way to Mecca?

After a long debate where the judge weighed the risk factor,yet could not ignore the earlier release, he ordered Abu Rahmeh released under the following conditions:

-10,000 shekel deposit

-Third party guarantee by 2 people each posting 10,000 shekels.

-Reporting to the Hashmonaim Police Station every Friday.

The case was referred to arraignment before Chief justice Menahem Lieberman on 31.5.15.

In Justice Haim Balilti’s court we watched the memorandum hearing of

Hanan Jamal Abed Alrahim Shalabi -ID 860173798

She is represented by Atty. Ramati.

Hanan was arrested in Bili’n at the big rally commemorating the ten year anniversary of the struggle against the wall. She has been at Sharon Prison since then.

It was a short hearing because the defense had not yet received all the material.

Hanan’s mother and another member of the family had been waiting since morning for the brief hearing that took place at 5 PM. At least they were able to talk to her for a bit.

Next hearing was set for 13.5.15.

We managed to attend also the hearing of

Nasrin Mustafa Hamida - ID 415061167, mother of five from the village of Dura.

She was arrested at home on suspicion that something she wrote on her blog or on Facebook might be construed as a threat. She informed the authorities that her accounts had been hacked, but until Wednesday she had been detained at the Russian Compound for interrogation.

On 20.4. Atty. Munzer Abu Ahmed appealed the detention, but the appeal was rejected.

Today the judge released her from detention after she had deposited 2500 shekels with the fraud department.