B'Tselem's complaint leads DIP to recommend prosecution of policemen

30 November 2005

In June 2004, B'Tselem wrote to attorney Herzl Svero, the head of the Department for the Investigation of Police, of the State Attorney's Office, demanding an investigation of an incident of severe maltreatment of a Palestinian in early April 2004. A year and a half later, on 23 November 2005, DIP informed B'Tselem that it has recommended that criminal charges be brought against the police officers involved.

In his testimony to B'Tselem, the victim, A.L., stated that he was stopped by Border Police officers in Umm el-Fahm, where he worked. The policemen put him into a jeep, and when it began to move, one of the officers, who was sitting facing him hit him and ordered him to kiss a picture of a woman. According to the witness, when he refused, the officer kicked him and shouted at him. The officer also said he wanted "to fuck me," in the words of the witness.

The jeep stopped in the woods near the Megiddo junction. The policemen got out and, according to A.L., the officer who had threatened him touched the victim's groin. The policemen then blindfolded the witness, removed him from the jeep and searched him. A.L. stated that he felt one of the officers opening the buttons of his [the witness's'] pants. He removed the blindfold and began to cry. Ultimately, the soldiers decided to take A.L. home. Before getting back into the jeep, A.L. saw his wallet lying on the ground, and he picked it up. The soldiers dropped him off near Sallem, and he got into a taxi. When he later checked his wallet, he found that the money that was in it had disappeared, and he did not have money to pay the fare.

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