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Home » Children »

Testimony: A.I.M.N.

 

Name: A.I.M.N.
Age: 14
Date: 10 January 2019
Location: Kafr Ni'ma, West Bank
Accusation: Throwing stones

On 10 January 2019, a 14-year-old from Kafr Ni’ma was arrested by Israeli soldiers from home at 12:30 a.m. and accused of throwing stones. He reports ill treatment. He reports consulting with a lawyer in person prior to interrogation but not being informed of his right to silence by the interrogator before questioning. He was sentenced to 1 week in prison and fined NIS 2,000.

Shortly after I went to bed I heard loud banging at our front door. It was around 12:30 a.m. I was startled but I stayed in bed. My mother thought it was my older brother coming home from my grandparents’ house. Then we heard a voice telling us to open up for the Israeli army. 
 
My mother turned the light on, woke up my father up and then opened the door. About 10 soldiers entered our home. More soldiers surrounded our house outside. One soldier was masked. The door was dented because the soldiers tried to open it using a device. 
 
The soldiers told my sisters to go to their bedroom. Then two soldiers told me to sit down on the living room floor and asked to see my father’s identity card. When they read my name they told me to prepare myself for arrest. My father asked for the reason and the soldiers told him to check with the district coordination office. Then they gave my father a document written in Hebrew with a telephone number to call. My father later told me he called several times during the day but no one answered the phone.
 
I put my clothes on and said goodbye to my mother. My sister started to cry because I did not have enough time to say goodbye to her. The soldiers then took me outside where they tied my hands to the front with one plastic tie which was not painful. They walked me towards my uncle’s house and on the way they blindfolded me. I was then put in the back of a military jeep and made me sit on the metal floor. The soldier who was driving made weird sounds like a chicken.
 
The jeep drove inside the village for about an hour and clashes erupted with young men throwing stones at the jeep I was in. It was scary. Then I was taken to a shipping container at a nearby settlement where I stayed until later that morning. During this time I was examined by a doctor who asked me questions about my health. He spoke to me via a voice google translate on his mobile phone because he did not speak Arabic. He did not remove the tie or the blindfold during the examination. 
 
Then I was taken to a room and I sat on the floor. When I got tired from my position and moved a bit to sit properly a soldier swore at me and called me “a son of a whore.” I swore back at him and he kicked me. I asked for water and they brought me some. I was left there until around 10:00 a.m. and I managed to sleep for about 30 minutes.  At around 10:00 a.m. I was taken to a police station in a settlement; I think it was Modi’in but I was not sure. 
 
At the police station I waited for about two hours on a chair in an open area. A lawyer came and asked me what time I was arrested and whether I was beaten and I told him I was. He asked me whether I had eaten and he ordered some food for me. Then he told me I had the right to remain silent and to tell the interrogator I cannot answer questions. At around 12:30 p.m. a soldier removed the blindfold and I was taken for interrogation.
 
The interrogator was an Israeli policeman who spoke good Arabic. He showed me some photographs and accused me of throwing stones. Then he asked me whether I had hit soldiers and I told him I had not. 
 
Half-way through the interrogation he showed me a document in Arabic about my right to remain silent and my right to consult with a lawyer. I was scared and could not remain silent and I thought to myself if I confessed I would spend a week in prison and would then go home like another boy from my village. 
 
Then the interrogator showed me a photograph of a boy from the village and asked me for his name. I told him I did not know him. Then he showed me documents in Arabic and Hebrew and I am not sure whether I signed or not, I do not remember. 
 
After the interrogation someone photographed me and took my fingerprints and then I waited in a room before being taken to Ofer prison, near Jerusalem. They made me wait for about six hours by the gate and then I was strip searched before being taken to section 13. By then it was around 11:30 p.m.
 
Two days later I had a military court hearing. My parents were there and the military judge extended my detention. The hearing was adjourned for another two days. On the second hearing I was sentenced in a plea bargain to a week in prison and fined NIS 2,000. I also received a suspended sentence of two weeks valid for one year. 
 
I was released at Al Jib checkpoint on 15 January 2019. My parents and cousins and the lawyer and some friends were waiting for me at the checkpoint and I went home in a convoy. I had dinner which my aunt because my mother was waiting for me at the checkpoint most of the day. After dinner I went to bed. I was very happy to be home. I was very bored in prison and did not know what to do with my time.