Ofer - Stone Throwing, Remand Extension

Translation: Marganit W.

Judge: Lieut. Col.  Eran Laufman

Police Investigator: Warrant Officer Yossi Ben Arush

Defense: Munzer Abu Ahmed

Suspects:

Muhammad Rakez Suliman – ID 404308876

Nur Aladin Rajah Suliman – ID 405004292

The court agrees to combine the cases, since they involve the same incident. The defendants are two minors accused of throwing rocks and firebombs on Rte. 443. They were arrested 2 days ago, but the incident occurred 3 weeks ago. One admitted his guilt and incriminated the other, who does not accept the charges.

The Investigator requests 5 additional days remand extension, which the court usually grants. However, in this case, surprisingly, the judge wanted to know why 5 days and not, for instance, 3? The investigator, who was also taken by surprise, gave strange explanations: Bringing in detainees causes police patrols to halt: there are certain agreements between the police and the prison authorities, which are responsible for bringing in detainees. In particular, there are difficulties in transporting detainees from the holding facilities.

The Investigator added that when he requests 5 days this means he has only 2 days to conduct the investigation.

Thus, we learned indirectly about the unbearable lightness with which Palestinians are kept in jail for investigation. Let me remind you again that we are talking about underage persons here, but the same principle applies to everyone.

The judge tells the investigator again that he cannot ask for a specific number of days without enumerating the length of time for each part of the investigation. He wants to know why some investigations cannot be carried out simultaneously.

The defense points out that the families of the detainees, - present in court - are willing to post bail, and he requests an alternative to detention.

After this lengthy debate between judge and investigator and with “due consideration to the rights of the accused” the judge orders 4 days remand. The investigator wanted 5, the judge said, why not 3? And they compromised on 4. I was the only one, apparently, who felt that this was not really a court of law.

Justice Lieut.-Col. Yair Tirosh is the new judge for minors. I was told that trials are conducted behind closed doors, but he would ask the families if they have no objection to my presence. However, I am not allowed to report. Thus, the minors were brought in one by one; I left, members of the families entered, and they had no objection to my presence, so I was let in.

None of the cases came to a conclusion.

Some cases were postponed to 5.3.14, even though some of the boys have already been detained for many months.