2 Palestinians Assaulted by Soldiers
23 Aug 08
Two men were detained by the soldiers at the crossing checkpoint in Tel Rumeida at around 6.15. They were Marwan Jamjun and Imad Jamjun, brothers visiting their relatives at the crossing in Tel Rumeida. One had recently had surgery and they were in a hurry. They had an engine block with them and needed to get to the shop before it closed. They argued with the soldiers who tried to detain them. For this reason they were both blindfolded and handcuffed and had their heads beaten against the wall of an apartment building.
They were held for an hour until I arrived and called the police, who arrived and took them both away. The soldiers lied and said the Palestinians had hit them. The Palestinians have been charged with assault even though they were the ones who were assaulted. Witnesses were afraid to come forward because in the past police have passed names and addresses back to the soldiers who have visited their homes and taken reprisals.
One 12 year old boy agreed to testify and I took him to the police station. We had to wait for 2 hours outside the gate of the police station before anyone would let us in and talk to us. Most of the police were very rude to us but fortunately the investigating officer was kind to the boy testifying. He was very afraid to be in the police station. He gave a very clear witness statement and was able to identify the offending soldiers from my photograph.
Marwan and Imad are due in court in Ramalla on Sunday.
In a separate incident on the same day Firaz from the same family was attacked by settlers inside his workshop at the crossing. They came in and were spitting at him and throwing nuts at him. The soldiers came over and detained Firaz. Again the settlers lied and said it was Firaz who had caused the trouble. The soldiers detained him but later released him. Police arrived later and took him into custody. He was released the next day.
