_a.jpg "צילום: גיל אליהו")
Suspects at police station
Photo: Gil Eliyahu
Mansur with mother in hospital
Photo: Gil Eliyahu
Youths assault Arab in Tiberias
'They said they were going to pick a fight,' says boy whose friends ganged up on 20yr old on boardwalk
Seven youths suspected of having attacked an Arab youth were indicted Thursday on charges of aggravated assault. Three others were released from custody.
The youths were arrested last Monday on suspicion that they had ganged up on 20-year old Mohammad Mansur, of Majd al-Krum, wounding him severely. Police claimed the attack had been racially motivated.
One of the boys released, a 13-year old on whom not enough evidence had been found to file charges, told Ynet he had asked his friends to stop hitting the youth. He also claimed a number of other assailants had escaped arrest.
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"The boys just gathered and went out in an orderly fashion to find an Arab victim," an officer familiar with the case said.
According to the indictments filed with the Nazareth Magistrates' Court, seven boys have been charged with aggravated assault, obstruction of justice, threats, and deceiving an officer.
While the suspects were being held in custody the court was presented with a tape documenting the incident. The attorney representing the 13-year old released Thursday asked that the tape be shown in order to prove that his client was not a party to the assault.
"I was with two friends, and one of the guys called and asked us to meet him at the boardwalk," the boy told Ynet. "We went down to the boardwalk and everyone was there, I heard them yell to my friend that they were going to pick a fight."
On the tape, Mansur is shown walking on the Tiberias boardwalk. The group of boys can be seen making its way towards him and attacking him.
"They asked him, 'Are you an Arab?' and then jumped him. They were many against one. I told one of them, 'Stop it, enough,' because it hurt me to see it, but they didn't listen to me," the boy recounted.
He said the youths arrested were not the ones mainly responsible for the assault. "There was a big group that beat him, but they weren't arrested," he said.
The boy's mother said she had not educated her son to be racist, and that he had been traumatized by the wrongful arrest. "My son is educated to love all men whoever they may be. They put a good boy in custody and ruined him," she said.
