Ofer - Barred (from meeting with attorney), Interrogation of Witness

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Observers: 
Nitza Aminov (reporting)
Dec-26-2017
|
Morning

From thee protocol: By fleeing the soldiers, the accused prevented the soldiers from carrying out their duties.

 

A father of an underage detainee asked me to translate the charge sheet against his 15-year old son. The boy attended a demonstration against Trump’s declaration regarding the status of Jerusalem. About 50 youths attended the rally. At one point the soldiers used crowd-dispersing gear (unspecified in the protocol). The detainee ran away and hid in a storage room. The soldiers tracked him down and arrested him. He was taken to Ofer and charged with throwing rocks.

The above quote is part of the indictment.

The boy and his friends have been in detention for more than a week.

 

Justice Lieut.-Col Lieberman oversaw the evidentiary hearing of

Issa Amro   

represented by Atty. Gaby Lasky.

 

Most of the witnesses “did not remember what had happened or why they wrote what they wrote in their statements to the police, why someone else’s signatures appeared on the statement, or why the testimony was hearsay. Perhaps they really could not remember; after all the events happened quite a while ago.

A phrase that often occurs in plea bargains is: “to save the court’s time”. But here the authorities drag a case involving an alleged unlawful rally about some blocked road, one of many in Hebron, where a group of journalists attended.

It is clear that the activity of Issa and his group “Youth against the Settlements’ is a thorn in the authorities’ side.

It transpired in the hearing that the Civil Administrationinfo-icon has profiled Issa and branded him “wiseguy who tries to create provocations. A problematic person”.

The press attended the hearing.

For those interested to follow up this farce, the next hearing was set for 20.2.18 – 9:30.

 

Judge: Lieut. Col. Zvi Heilbronn

Defendant: Istabrak Yihye Tamimi

Defense: Atty. Salah Mahamid.

 

Istabrak, a student at Beir Zeit University, was arrested 9 months ago, together with two friends - Bayan Faroun and Batoul Ramahi.

She underwent harsh interrogations at the Russian Compound and was barred from seeing counsel. Currently she is at Damoun Prison.

A plea bargain was offered to the judge. Istabrak was charged with “contact with the enemy” and “membership and activity in a proscribed organization” (i.e., Hamas).

Penalty: 24 months and a day prison time, starting with the day of arrest; 18 months suspended sentence for 5 years, and, as always, a monetary fine of 6000 shekels or 6 months in jail.

Her mother and a friend were present in court. When the sentence was pronounced, the mother collapsed. Istabrak was not allowed to hug her mother.

 

In the yard I met the mothers of Bil’in kids who have been in jail for more than 2 weeks and are undergoing interminable interrogations.