Court extends remand of cops who allegedly beat Palestinian

Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court on Tuesday extended the remand of four Tel Aviv policemen who were arrested yesterday for allegedly assaulting a Palestinian detainee

According to the Justice Ministry's Police Investigations Department, new evidence has emerged in the investigation which ties the three officers to the crime. Thus far, however, the nature of the crimes allegedly committed by the three individual officers remains unclear.

The Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court extended their detention by four days.

The PID said it began investigating due to a complaint by Palestinian Alaan Abu Najmi.

The affair began when the Tel Aviv District Police learned that a motorbike had been stolen, and that the thief was offering to return the bike to its owner for NIS 40,000. The two agreed to meet at the Beit Haggai junction, south of Hebron. The Yarkon sub-district sent 12 policemen to seize the motorbike and arrest the alleged thief, Abu Najmi.

During the operation, however, the policemen damaged the motorbike, forcing them to stop at the Kiryat Arba police station for several hours.

When Abu Najmi was later brought to Tel Aviv for questioning, he told his interrogators that the policemen had assaulted him. His case was immediately handed over to the Justice Ministry.

Abu Najmi told his interrogators that the abuse began in a police vehicle at the scene of the arrest, when the policemen sprayed pepper gas in his face and beat him.

The abuse escalated at the Kiryat Arba police station, where, according to the investigators' testimony in the magistrate's court, "one policeman urinated on the plaintiff, and others dumped a bucket of cigarette butts on his head, poured shampoo on him and scrubbed his head with a toilet brush."

Rifle butts

The detainee also said the policemen stuck a rifle barrel into his anus, and beat him with their rifle butts as they drove him from Hebron to Tel Aviv.

Abu Najmi remains in detention for allegedly stealing the motorbike.

Yesterday, Justice Ministry investigators came to the Yarkon police station and informed all 12 policemen they were being questioned under caution. Eight were released a few hours later, while four others, whom the investigators believe played a prominent role in the affair, were detained for further questioning.

The presiding judge, Alon Defdi, placed a gag order on the detained policemen's names. Present at the court were Brigadier General Moshe Edri, commander of the Yarkon sub-district, and Chief Superintendent Sigal Bar Tzvi, commander of the North Tel Aviv police station.

Police are still giving their colleagues unqualified support. If convicted, they will be expelled from the force.

Rimona Sheleg, attorney for one of the suspects, said her client was arrested based on "scandalous" evidence.

"He was arrested because the bike thief said there was a Special Patrol policeman there, and described his appearance," she said. "There were a few dozen Special Patrol men in the courtroom, all of them tall, strong men in gray uniforms. The plaintiff's description matches any policeman, and this whole conduct is just strange."