Two Hevron residents were illegally imprisoned for a night - a mother and her nursing baby. Yesterday morning, when the mother was brought before a judge, he rebuked the police for having provided false information and causing him to order an illegal imprisonment.
The story began when the police arrived at Yifat Alkobi's home on Tuesday afternoon to arrest her, after an Arab resident of the city complained that she had built a playground on his property. She had refused an earlier summons to come herself to the police station, on the grounds that the charges were too ridiculous to take seriously. Once at the police station, she was questioned and then informed that she would have to pay 750 shekels in order to be released. She refused, saying there were no grounds for either her arrest or the demand to pay. Her husband Shalom later explained to Arutz-7, "The police can demand a monetary deposit when, at the request of the suspect, the questioning session is interrupted. For instance, if she wants to go to her relative's wedding, she will be asked to pay in order to ensure her return to the rest of the interrogation. But here, the interrogation session had ended! There was thus no justification for demanding payment. So they went before a judge - one who is known to be very tough on members of the Jewish community of Hevron."
Things then took a turn for the worse when the police did not tell the judge the full story. Not knowing that the investigation had ended, he "reduced" the payment to 500 shekels. Yifat, not yet represented by a lawyer at this point, continued to refuse, knowing that she could not afford to set a precedent for future cases. She was thus kept locked up in a room in the police station overnight. The room had a bed, but not much else, and as expected, the baby - the youngest of her four children - barely slept all night.
The next day, when Attorney Naftali Wurtzberger arrived on the scene, he clarified before the judge the true situation. At this point, the judge sharply rebuked the police for having provided wrong information and made an illegal demand for incarceration. The police attempted to justify their behavior by saying that the Hevron residents had to be dealt with sharply, but he totally rejected this claim.
Wurtzberger later said that the police detain many Jewish Hevron residents, and that many of them deposit sums of money for various reasons and under various circumstances. They usually do not take the trouble to retrieve the funds, however, as this involves a long and complex procedure. Arutz-7's Ruti Avraham stated that Arutz-7 would soon initiate an investigation as to what was done with these monies.
Shalom Alkobi said that he is interested in filing a civil law suit against the police for what the judge called their illegal actions. His primary claims are the illegal incarceration and the fact that she was held all night in an office instead of in a regular jail cell equipped with basics such as shower facilities.
In February 2002, Arutz-7 reported that Yifat and her children were the targets of an attempted terrorist murder attack. She was walking to the Machpelah Cave with her three young children when what she called "precisely aimed" bullets fired from the Abu Sneineh hills passed within millimeters of her children.
The story began when the police arrived at Yifat Alkobi's home on Tuesday afternoon to arrest her, after an Arab resident of the city complained that she had built a playground on his property. She had refused an earlier summons to come herself to the police station, on the grounds that the charges were too ridiculous to take seriously. Once at the police station, she was questioned and then informed that she would have to pay 750 shekels in order to be released. She refused, saying there were no grounds for either her arrest or the demand to pay. Her husband Shalom later explained to Arutz-7, "The police can demand a monetary deposit when, at the request of the suspect, the questioning session is interrupted. For instance, if she wants to go to her relative's wedding, she will be asked to pay in order to ensure her return to the rest of the interrogation. But here, the interrogation session had ended! There was thus no justification for demanding payment. So they went before a judge - one who is known to be very tough on members of the Jewish community of Hevron."
Things then took a turn for the worse when the police did not tell the judge the full story. Not knowing that the investigation had ended, he "reduced" the payment to 500 shekels. Yifat, not yet represented by a lawyer at this point, continued to refuse, knowing that she could not afford to set a precedent for future cases. She was thus kept locked up in a room in the police station overnight. The room had a bed, but not much else, and as expected, the baby - the youngest of her four children - barely slept all night.
The next day, when Attorney Naftali Wurtzberger arrived on the scene, he clarified before the judge the true situation. At this point, the judge sharply rebuked the police for having provided wrong information and made an illegal demand for incarceration. The police attempted to justify their behavior by saying that the Hevron residents had to be dealt with sharply, but he totally rejected this claim.
Wurtzberger later said that the police detain many Jewish Hevron residents, and that many of them deposit sums of money for various reasons and under various circumstances. They usually do not take the trouble to retrieve the funds, however, as this involves a long and complex procedure. Arutz-7's Ruti Avraham stated that Arutz-7 would soon initiate an investigation as to what was done with these monies.
Shalom Alkobi said that he is interested in filing a civil law suit against the police for what the judge called their illegal actions. His primary claims are the illegal incarceration and the fact that she was held all night in an office instead of in a regular jail cell equipped with basics such as shower facilities.
In February 2002, Arutz-7 reported that Yifat and her children were the targets of an attempted terrorist murder attack. She was walking to the Machpelah Cave with her three young children when what she called "precisely aimed" bullets fired from the Abu Sneineh hills passed within millimeters of her children.