4 Border Guard officers acquitted of assaulting Palestinian

The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court acquitted on Wednesday four Border Guard officers accused of assaulting a Palestinian detainee. The judge ruled that the prosecution failed to prove beyond all doubt the defendants had indeed committed the actions they were charged with.

The incident in question occurred on August 18 2004. A Palestinian man who was wanted for questioning, was arrested at one of the checkpoints at the entrance to Jerusalem and taken by Border Guard policemen to the Ofer army base.

According to the indictment, during the ride to the base three of the officers beat up the detainee, who was blindfolded and handcuffed at the time. The fourth officer, who was driving the vehicle, zigzagged wildly in order to cause the cuffed detainee to lose balance and fall down.

The officers also allegedly forced the Palestinian to sing a song praising the Border Guard police, and one of them is said to have pushed a cigarette into the detainee's mouth against his will.

The four defendants admitted to driving the Palestinian to the detention base, but denied the charges against them, saying they were not the ones behind the assault.

The judge wrote in the ruling that only a few minutes elapsed between the time the officers left the Ofer base and the time the medical staff had discovered the bruises on the Palestinian's body. "It's implausible that the beating could have caused such swelling in such a short time, and therefore it's doubtful that the bruises were caused during this ride," she stated.

According to the judge, the bruises may have been the result of the severe beating the plaintiff had fallen victim to while he was being held at the checkpoint, that they were caused at the Ofer base itself, or even that he was bruised prior to arriving at the checkpoint.