Havi Toker
Havi TokerYonatan Sindel/Flash90

The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court released a 16-year-old Jewish boy who was violently arrested by police in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot. He was arrested on suspicion of disturbing a policeman and attacking policemen.

The boy was arrested at his home and after his interrogation and was detained following his interrogation. The next day, the minor was brought to the Magistrate's Court for a remand extension where the police wanted to extend his detention by five days for further interrogation.

At the hearing, attorney Moshe Polski of the Honenu legal organization argued that the detention was illegal and that the minor should be released unconditionally.

Judge Havi Toker accepted the position of Attorney Polski and ordered the minor's release without any conditions, while stating that the police had no authority to arrest the minor.

"With all due respect, there was no authority to detain the respondent, and certainly not to detain him without a judge's order, since there was no suspicion that an offense had been committed or that an offense was about to be committed," judge Toker said.

In response to the decision, Attorney Polski said, "I am very sorry that the police are violating the law again, and came to arrest a minor in his home with great violence, without justification and without a warrant as required by law. In the court it became clear that the detention was illegal, there was no reason to arrest the minor, and certainly not to ask for his continued detention."

"The violence in this case was carried out by the police and not by the minor. We hope that the Department of Internal Investigations will be required to thoroughly investigate the police's conduct in the event," Polski added.

An urgent complaint was filed against the violent arrest, including testimonies of neighbors and passersby who witnessed the arrest. The testimonies indicate that in the morning three policemen arrived at the minor's house and asked him to leave. "When he arrived nearby they stormed him without warning, without presenting him with an arrest warrant, without asking him to accompany them to the car and without doing anything."

According to the eyewitnesses, the policemen put the child on the floor in the street, handcuffed him and put him in the car. The complaint further states that eyewitnesses were "shocked to the depths of their souls," and one of the neighbors' little daughter began to cry at the very sight.

The letter of complaint ends with a statement and a request that "it is clear from the evidence that the detention was not carried out in accordance with the procedures, but much more so that the detention approach was violent and unbridled."