Injured youths testified to PIU

Honenu is representing those who are insisting on the investigation of the death of Ahuvia Sandak, z”l, who was tragically killed in a police car chase on Tevet 6 5781/ December 21, 2020, and defending the many who are being detained while demonstrating for change in police behavior. The car Ahuvia was in with four other boys overturned when the police car collided with it from behind. Please click here for a list of posts connected to the case.

Ahuvia Sandak, z”l; Photo courtesy of the family

Saturday, January 9, 2021, 21:40 On Thursday, January 7, 18 days after the incident in which Ahuvia Sandak, z”l, was killed, the youths who were injured gave their first testimonies and filed a complaint with the Police Investigation Unit (PIU). The youths were summoned on Wednesday, after the PIU received widespread public criticism for allowing a long time to elapse before taking testimony from the youths who were in the car that was rammed by policemen from the Central Unit of Yehuda and Shomron Police. Other than the policemen involved with the chase, the youths were the only eye witnesses and therefore their testimonies are significant to the investigation and clarification of the incident. Immediately after the incident, when the youths were hospitalized, they said that the policemen had rammed their car. The youths were summoned after Honenu Attorney Menashe Yado wrote several letters to the PIU, informing them that the injured youths who had been released from remand had been added to the complaint as crime victims with regards to the ramming accident and that it was not clear why they had not been summoned to testify. Honenu Attorneys Menashe Yado and Adi Keidar, who are representing the injured youths, leveled sharp criticism at the PIU over their handling of the case. Keidar: “We regard with severity the conduct of the special team, which pretends to be conducting an objective and impartial investigation. The youths were summoned by the team to file a complaint at the PIU headquarters, and they left feeling as if seeking the truth was not the aim of the PIU investigators but rather extracting the policemen from a cause of death case. “This is additional proof of the lack of symmetry in the investigation and the fact that the entire team was assembled for and is on the side of the policemen. A youth was killed by policemen, and there was no-one doing everything possible to arrive at the truth and to provide the public with answers. It’s a very sad situation.”