B'TSELEM - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
Sept.24 '09: Prison sentence for border policeman who assaulted Palestinians in Baka a-Sharqiya
In March 2005, B'Tselem took testimonies from three garage owners in the Baka a-Sharqiya industrial area who contended they had been assaulted by border policemen. In the first case, which occurred on 26 February 2005, border policemen assaulted Muhammad Markeb; the second, on 3 March 2005, involved the assault of Wael ‘Awad Allah; in the third case, which occurred on 5 March 2005, the victim was Jamal Hamamrah, who also testified that money was stolen from his ID holder. In each of the incidents, policemen severely beat the victims, who required medical treatment.
On 21 March 2005, B'Tselem requested the Department for the Investigation of Police to investigate these incidents and the possibility that similar incidents had occurred in the same area. The DIP opened investigations into the three incidents, and in December 2005, informed B'Tselem that the investigation file regarding Markeb had been closed because the department had been unable to locate the person suspected of committing the offense. In the other two cases, the Haifa District Attorney's Office filed indictments against three border policemen for assault and making threats. Jamal Hamamrah's claim regarding theft was not included in the indictment filed in his case.
Three years later, on 26 January 2009, one of the policemen, Shai Shalav, was convicted in the Magistrate's Court in Hadera on counts of assault and making threats. On 7 September 2009, he was sentenced to eight months' imprisonment, a conditional sentence of twelve months, a fine of NIS 6,000, and compensatory payments to 'Awad Allah (NIS 3,000) and to Hamamrah (NIS 6,000). On 8 September, the Haifa District Attorney's Office informed B'Tselem of the sentences.
In sentencing the defendant, Judge Sabri Muhsein, vice-president of the Hadera Magistrate's Court, said: "There is no dispute that the complainants in the two files were assaulted and beaten for no wrongdoing on their part, and there is no dispute that the conduct of the defendant was shameful and constituted a misuse of force by the police. Furthermore, the defendant's violence directed particularly at the complainant in Crim File 1791/07 [Jamal Hamamrah] was brutal, degrading, and painful, its objective being to humiliate and demean the complainant."
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