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Photo: AFP
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Photo: AFP

‘Border Guards abused Palestinians’

Police Investigation Unit files indictment against four Ofir Brigade officers suspected of abusing innocent Palestinians last year

Four Border Guard officers were arraigned Sunday at the Rishon Lezion District Court on counts of aggravated assault, abuse of authority, and threats of bodily harm against two innocent Palestinians in 2006.

 

A photograph published by Yedioth Ahronoth last year showed the two Palestinians bruised, with shoe marks on their faces. Following the publication, the two Palestinians were asked to give a statement about the attack they had suffered.

 

The photograph prompted an inquiry by the Police Investigation Unit, which revealed that the four border guards, from the Ofir Brigade, apprehended the two Palestinians in Jaffa, drove them out to the sand dunes in Yavne, and proceeded to abuse them for no apparent reason.

 

According to the indictment, the officers handcuffed the two Palestinians, kicked them, beat them with their fists, and battered them with their rifles.

 

The indictment also charged the border guards with stabbing the victims’ faces with pens, pounding their heads with large, water-filled bottles, and stomping on their faces.

 

After the assault, the officers supposedly ordered the two Palestinians to run away, and threatened to kill them if they ever saw them in Israel again.

 

Two other Ofir Brigade officers were indicted Sunday, under charges of stopping a vehicle in Jaffa recently, and beating its two Israeli-Arab passengers, who ended up in hospital as a result of the attack.

 


פרסום ראשון: 09.17.07, 12:02
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