Video shows police's sloppy arrest, suspect released
A Bedouin indicted for transporting illegal aliens is released from detention when a video of his arrest shows that he was not given the chance to pull over and was endangered by the police.
In a hearing on Wednesday, Judge Daniel Ben Tolila observed a video documenting the defendant's arrest, stating that "not only was the defendant placed in a situation that prevented him from stopping before he arrived at the checkpoint, but de facto tried to slow down his vehicle."
The police asked to extend the defendant's remand until the end of the legal proceedings, but due to the lack of evidence against him and the conduct of the police, the judge decided to release him to house arrest.
The incident attributed to the defendant took place last month.
In the indictment filed a week ago, the Police Prosecution Branch accused him of transporting illegal aliens, obstructing a police officer, and reckless driving.
According to the indictment, the driver, 22, noticed an improvised checkpoint erected by the police, which included road spikes, and one of the policemen signaled him with a flashlight to stop.
"He drove over the spikes in a fast speed and deviated to the side of the road, where a policeman was standing and due to his vigilance, managed to avoid being hit by his car," the statement read.
The police were very proud of the operation they conducted against what they refer to as a network that smuggles and transports illegal aliens. A video uploaded to the police's Facebook page documented the activities of the Border Police undercover unit.
"The defendant behaved negligently in a way that would endanger human life," the indictment stated. However, viewing the video shows that the police allegedly endangered the life of the defendant and his passengers, Palestinians who saught to work in Israel.
The video shows the defendant had only a few seconds to notice the improvised checkpoint and the spikes that were quickly deployed. The driver managed to maintain control over the vehicle, which stopped in a ditch by the side of the road.
In this context, the judge noted that "watching the video shows that in the speed in which the defendant was sriving it was a real difficulty, mayhap even an impossibility, to stop short of the spikes."
The judge also noted that the video even shows that the driver attempted to stop his vehicle before reaching the checkpoint, "something that is apparent both visually (the white smoke—ed) and audibly (the sound of brakes)."
The defendant's attorney, Tziki Feldman, said: "This is an unfortunate incident, during which the police took the law into their own hands, acting in violation of their own procedures and guidelines," said the defendant's attorney, Tziki Feldman. "At the end of the day, a grandious indictment was filed accusing my client of endangering the lives of the policemen. The video shows that the description in the indictment is false. The police were the ones who endangered the life of my client and the rest of the people in the car."
On the Facebook page of the police, it was noted in connection with the defendant's arrest that "large forces of the Border Police conducted extensive activity against illegal residents. As part of the operation, three Palestinians who were the head of the network and five other passengers, residents of Israel, were arrested and detained by the forces.
"The network has brought in thousands of unauthorized Palestinians, including terrorists."
However, there is no mention of any terrorist in the indictment against the Bedouin driver.
The police said in response that "the defendant was not released from detention but was released to house arrest. It should be emphasized that the defendant's release does not diminish the gravity of his actions, and that an investigation is still being conducted against him on suspicion of being part of a large network that has engaged in smuggling and transporting thousands of illegal aliens, including terrorists, which he is expected to be brought to a remand hearing on Friday.
"In the framework of the ongoing struggle of the Israel Police against illegal immigrants, the police have been working in recent months against a huge network which smuggles illegal aliens on the southern seam line (the southern segment of the Green Line that divided the city of Jerusalem from 1948 to 1967).
"As part of these activities, the defendant was arrested while transporting illegal aliens into the territory of the State of Israel while trying to frantically escape from a police blockade. The arrest of the suspect was made possible thanks to the soldiers who erected another obstruction in the course of his escape."
