Police, Justice Ministry refusing to investigate officers for perjury

Despite a judge's ruling that three Tel Aviv police officers lied on the stand when they claimed to have been brutally assaulted, both the Justice Ministry's Police Investigations Department and the police have declined to investigate the case or take action against the officers.

All the officers are still in blue. Meanwhile, this incident has compromised police credibility more than any other in recent months, say sources involved in the case.

In May, the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court court acquitted three young men whom several police officers accused of assault three years ago, after a video showed the officers' accounts to be untrue.

The officers told the judge that they had arrived at a party after neighbors complained about the noise, and that the three men hurled glass bottles at them. They also claimed revelers beat a female officer while she was lying unconscious on the ground.

Judge Shmuel Landman ruled the testimony uncredible.

"I am disturbed by the standards the police officers demonstrated in their testimony," he wrote in his ruling. "We must not have police officers take to the stand, and then claim that black is white and white is black. This gives rise to somber reflections on the standards of the officers who testified before me."

Landman based his ruling on a video tape the officers had confiscated from the revelers. After the defendants requested that the footage be introduced as evidence, it showed the police's account to be false.

Despite the judge's misgivings about the officers' performance, credibility and standards, all are still serving in the police's Yiftah Region. Moreover, the authorities apparently have no intention of heeding the judge's criticism of Roni Dolinski, Idan Albachri and Karmit Or Lev - whose testimonies gave the judge special cause for concern.

"There is no reason to initiate an investigation into the officers' actions, given the circumstances and the fact that the events occurred more than three years ago," the PID told the defendants' attorney, public defender Hagit Larnau. Larnau requested the PID initiate an investigation immediately after Landman's ruling in May.

In its response, the PID mentioned "the doubt concerning the events that led to the use of force, and the doubt as to whether the use of force constituted a violation of protocol." However, the legal truth already had been determined in court, and the judge already had criticized the officers' conduct.

After Larnau pointed this out to the PID, it transferred the case for internal inspection within the police. The case was submitted to the Yiftah Region complaints department - the very unit where the police officers serve.

The complaints officer informed Larnau last month that the case does not merit a probe, and that the complainants - the former defendants - should file individual complaints against the officers.

"These officers, like many others who managed to get away with similar offenses without punishment, feel they are protected," says a veteran criminal lawyer. "I have come across cops who lied about being assaulted. I have seen these same officers complain about other assaults."

Larnau says the fact that the officers managed to get off the hook despite having been harshly criticized by a judge encourages policemen to lie. "This will help create a culture of mendacity in the police force," she says.

Larnau is still trying to get the authorities to investigate the officers. She says she knows of other cases where police officers lied about conflicts with civilians.

"I have handled many cases," she says. "But this case was especially embarrassing because of how these officers behaved. They sat there on the stand and behaved like common criminals. The police and the Justice Department's Police Investigation Unit must not allow them to get away with it without paying for their actions."