MK Nissim Ze’ev (Shas) has proposed legislation to require the police to apologize when a criminal file is closed due to lack of guilt.
Ze’ev says that police statistics shows that thousands of innocent citizens are arrested on criminal charges each year. Some files are closed for lack of evidence, but many others are closed for lack of guilt – leaving the arrestee with psychological damage.
“A letter of apology would be an affirmation that the person was arrested for no reason and that he is innocent,” Ze’ev explains. “It would be the first step towards rehabilitating the citizen, who was forced to suffer for no reason. It would grant him the strength to do what he has to do to return to normal life.”
The letter would also specify the arrestee’s compensation rights, the proposed bill states.
“A person who is taken in for police questioning undergoes a trauma,” Ze’ev says, “especially when he knows that he is innocent of any wrongdoing. The mistake could have been based on a false complaint, or on a case of mistaken identity. Either way, his suffering includes loss of freedom, humiliation, harm to his reputation, loss of time, danger of being fired or other problems at work, and more.”
The bill was submitted on Wednesday, the last day of the Knesset session. The Knesset will reconvene three months from now, after the High Holidays.