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Home » Children »

Testimony: I.K.I.R.

 

Name: I.K.I.R.
Age: 15
Date: 30 May 2018
Location: Bil'in, West Bank
Accusation: Throwing stones

On 30 May 2018, a 15-year-old minor from Bil’in was arrested by Israeli soldiers at 2:30 a.m. and accused of throwing stones. He reports ill treatment and being denied his basic legal rights under Israeli military law. He reports being released on NIS 5,000 bail, 3 weeks after he was arrested.  

It was the fasting month of Ramadan and I went to the nearby shop to by some food at around 2:30 a.m. Shortly afterwards an Israeli military jeep approached me and my father stepped out of the jeep and told me soldiers had come to the house looking for me and forced him to accompany them to look for me. 
 
The soldiers took me to the back of the jeep with my father and made me sit on the metal floor. They also wanted my father to sit on the floor but he refused and told them he had back ache. The jeep drove a short distance to a nearby military base where they let my father off and told him to walk home. They gave him a document written in Hebrew which he did not understand. He walked home in the dark for about two kilometres.
 
The jeep continued driving to the police station in Binyamin settlement. On the way a soldier blindfolded and handcuffed me to the front with metal handcuffs which were not painful. He also shackled my feet. The soldiers then beat me on the back with their guns and swore at me. They called me a “son of a whore” and “brother of a whore”. 
 
I arrived at Binyamin at around 4:00 a.m. and was taken to a room where I sat on a wooden table until around 9:00 a.m. when I was taken for interrogation. I did not sleep at all.
 
The interrogator removed the blindfold and the handcuffs but kept the leg shackles on. He was in civilian clothes and had a voice recorder on his desk. He asked me some general questions: my name and my age. He did not inform me of my rights. 
 
The interrogator showed me some photographs during a protest in the village and accused me of taking part and throwing stones. When I denied that I was at the protest he banged the table and smashed two glass cups on the floor. I was shocked because I did not expect it. 
 
He repeated the accusation and told me I was seen in the photos with a sling shot. Still I denied the accusation. Then he showed me another photograph which he claimed was very clear. He told me this would incriminate me in court and I would spend a long time in prison but if I confessed the court might decide to release me. I believed him and confessed to throwing stones during the protest on 8 December 2017, after Trump declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel and decided to move the American Embassy to Jerusalem. I was interrogated for about two hours.
 
After I confessed he called a lawyer and allowed me to speak to him. The lawyer told me to remain silent but I told him I had already confessed.  Then the interrogator showed me documents in Hebrew and asked me to sign them. When I asked him to tell me what was written in them he refused and told me I had to sign and I did. 
 
After the interrogation I was photographed and fingerprinted. I was then taken to Ofer prison, near Jerusalem where I was strip searched and then taken to Section 13. By then it was 2:00 p.m. I did not eat because I was fasting.
 
The following day I was taken to Ofer military court. My mother and uncle were there and the military judge extended my detention and the hearing was adjourned. I had four hearings. At the last hearing the military judge decided to release me on bail. My family provided medical reports and I think this was the basis for granting me release on bail. The hearings were in Hebrew and I did not understand anything. 
 
My parents had to pay NIS 5,000 bail and I was released on 19 June 2018. My next hearing is on 2 July 2018, and the judge told me if I don’t show up the soldiers would arrest me again.