The Jerusalem Magistrate Court on Friday denied the Shin Bet and Samaria and Judea regional police’s request to extend by ten days the detention of three right-wing activists who were friends of those murdered in Tuesday’s terror attack near Eli, instead extending it until Monday.
At the beginning of the deliberation, the Shin Bet representatives requested a gag order on the case, but after a protest by attornies Adi Keidar and Nati Rom from the Honenu organization, the gag order was issued on only the details of the investigation.
The activists were issued an unusual order which barred them from meeting with their lawyers. Their condition is currently unknown. During the deliberation, the police and Shin Bet refused to answer if they are also currently investigating violent incidents and riots by Arabs against Jews. After the detainees’ lawyers applied pressure, the representative said that the Arabs in these cases were not questioned under warning.
Adv. Nati Rom stated: “Unfortunately, we were again notified of an outrageous arrest by the Shin Bet and Samaria and Judea Regional Police of three suspects, some of which have no prior criminal record whatsoever, with a draconian order that denies legal counsel. This is against human rights, it should be pointed out that for hours we were not permitted to grant them legal counsel, even though there was no order. It pains me that the Shin Bet and Police use such draconian means against Jews and settlers instead of stopping terrorism. We also see bad things being done by other sectors, such as the use of illegal weapons, and there they (the police) don’t use such draconian orders barring legal counsel.
We assume they are preparing to issue administrative orders and false arrests, which are only symbolic for the media as preparation for administrative detention. We are pained that forces are sent to settlers instead of being sent to those who carry out terror attacks. We saw pictures from northern [Druze protests] and southern Israel of people, some of whom were police officers, shooting guns, and arrests with such draconian measures were not made. We are happy that the Hon. Judge Joya accepted our claims that they did not allow the detainees to present any initial version of events since they have not been questioned up to this very minute, we ask and hope they will allow us to meet them quickly,” Rom added.
The three suspects, in their 20s, who are friends of the victims of the murderous terror attack in Eli, were detained last night in Samaria by detectives from the Samaria and Judea Regional Police Unit and were transferred for questioning at a Shin Bet facility.