Pregnant detainee spent night on bench in police station

honenu.org

Thu Mar 14 2013

http://honenu.org/pregnant-detainee-spent-night-on-bench-in-police-station/ Wednesday, March 13, 19:18 All of the Ramat Migron detainees have been released, among them a woman in her fifth month of pregnancy who was beaten by the police, detained and left to spend an entire night on a bench in the police station. The severe treatment received by detainees from the right-wing sector has taken a worrisome turn. Honenu’s response: The police have lost all sanity. On the afternoon of Monday, March 11 Arabs entered Ramat Migron, an outpost in the Binyamin region, and began to plow land located between houses. Residents who considered the presence of Arabs to be a tangible security risk tried to remove them from the outpost. Clashes broke out between the Jewish residents and the Arabs who were plowing. Border policemen arrived during the clashes and began to remove the Jews from the area while allowing the Arabs to continue plowing. According to eye-witnesses anyone who refused to leave the site was violently detained. Among the detainees was L., who was detained despite being five months pregnant. Someone on the scene who recorded the violent conduct of the police was beaten and had his camera taken from him. His camera was returned only after border policemen erased what he had recorded. The detainees were taken to the Sha’ar Binyamin Police Station and later transferred to the detention center of the Russian Compound in Jerusalem. According to the police L. and two of her friends are suspected of assaulting a public servant. Immediately following the detention early in the evening and throughout the night L. was left on a bench in the police station. On Tuesday, March 12 L. was brought to the Jerusalem Magistrate Court with her legs shackled and spent the entire day shackled. At night she was transferred to the Neve Tirtza women’s prison. The Tatzpit News agency reported on Tuesday, March 12 that the Arabs continued to plow in Ramat Migron with the authorization of the army which closed off the area to Jews. The Arabs plowing destroyed residential buildings in Ramat Migron and threw rocks at Jewish vehicles traveling on Route 60. At least one vehicle was damaged. On Tuesday, March 12 the remand of L. and her two friends was extended until this Thursday. Honenu attorney David HaLevi, who is representing the three women, filed an urgent appeal on their remand extension. In a deliberation on Wednesday, March 13 the judge ordered that they post bail and be released to house arrest. Honenu draws severe criticism on the conduct of the police. “It is unthinkable that the desire to provide politicians and journalists with ‘goods’ in the form of Jews detained after clashing with Arabs overrides basic logic and humane treatment. Beating and shackling a young woman in her fifth month of pregnancy then leaving her in a police station for an entire night without a decent place to sleep are unforgivable acts, no matter what she has been accused of. Additionally the procedure by which the Israeli Police, after determining that unjustified violence has been used on a detainee by police, automatically accuses the detainee of assaulting a policeman in order to cover for inappropriate police conduct must stop.