Honenu Attorney Nati Rom; Photo credit: Honenu
For more posts about Arab rioting and Jewish detainees, please see here.
Thursday, May 20, 2021, 10:59 Rishon LeTzion Magistrates Court Judge Tal Aner ruled that there had been no grounds for detaining 16 individuals, and then canceled the restrictions which had been imposed on them. Judge Aner also ordered the police to compensate Honenu Attorney Nati Rom, who represented the detainees, for unnecessarily coming to the deliberation.
The 16 detainees were detained in Ramleh when they came with trays of pizza to strengthen and encourage the residents and the security forces. They were released under restrictive conditions. Honenu Attorney Nati Rom filed an appeal to cancel the restrictions and tried all night to verify whether the police had agreed to his request, or if he had to be present at the court deliberation to plead the case.
Rom did not receive a reply, and therefore came to the deliberation on the following morning (today), where he was surprised to discover that the police actually had accepted his request to cancel the restrictive conditions, but had not informed the court. At the deliberation, Rom mentioned the waste of time due to the lack of an update concerning the decision by the police: “It was completely unnecessary to waste the court’s time, the appellants’ money, and their attorney’s time.”
Despite the decision by the police to cancel the conditions, the deliberation took place, and Judge Aner ruled in his decision that “it was decided to cancel the distancing condition after I ruled that there were no grounds for the detention and therefore there were no grounds for setting release conditions regarding it.” Concerning the waste of time, Judge Aner said that “the defense attorney was present this morning in vain,” and ruled that the police must pay the appellants’ attorney’s fees. The police requested a delay with regard to the payment, and Judge Aner ruled that their request was excessive.
Honenu Attorney Nati Rom, who represented the detainees: “The Israeli Police needs to do some soul searching about their conduct and they need to reorganize themselves. The police detained people who simply came to strengthen residents of Ramleh and security forces, they did not inform the court about canceling the conditions, and they even requested a delay in paying the fees ruled by the court. We hope that the message will be received and that the police will enforce the law against the rioters, who are shooting and throwing Molotov cocktails, and not detain people distributing pizza to boost the morale of civilians and security forces. The attorney’s fees that the police are obligated to pay will be donated to buy pizza for security forces.”