Ofer - Activity against security in the region, Incriminators

Translation: Marganit W.

Shameless Bastards

We are barred from reporting on hearings that involve minors, so here is what we heard from a father of an underage detainee. His almost-16 year old son was taken from home in the middle of the night eight days ago. Today was his remand extension hearing.

In March 2015 he was briefly detained for throwing rocks. This time he was arrested because a friend informed on him (we have no way of knowing what pressure was applied on the friend to incriminate).
The boy has been in detention for eight days, but has not confessed!

The father has a permit to work in Israel. Following the son’s arrest, the father was told to report to an officer in Kiryat-Arba and to bring his work permit. The officer told him that if he wanted his permit back, he had to tell his son to confess to throwing rocks. The father refused to tell his son to admit to something he had not done, and consequently, his permit was confiscated.

The judge decided on a remand extension.

The next hearing is on 19.4.17, i.e., more than a month after the arrest!

Judge Liet.-Col. Hanan Rubinstein oversaw the remand extension hearing of Samira Halaika, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

Defense: Atty. Firas Sabah.

Samira is from the village of Shaiuh, near Hebron. She is 53-years old and a mother of seven, the youngest is 10.

Samira worked as a journalist for 11 years. In 2006 she was elected as representative of Hamas to the PA legislature.

Over the years, her husband and several of her sons were arrested both by the PA and Israel.

Samira was arrested at home on 9.3.17 and has been interrogated many times since. She denies all the charges and yesterday a remand extension was issued until today.

The judge said, “I have been given a thick binder containing a charge of activity risking security in the region. Most of the material in the investigation file was in the investigators’ hands before her arrest.” (From the protocol. NA).

Needless to say, the thick binder handed to the judge was not given to the attorney. Neither did the latter receive answers to his questions regarding further interrogations. The uniform answer was “ Everything is in the file handed to the court.”

Judge’s decision: remand extension for 4 days. The next hearing is set for 16.3.17.