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Home » Children »

Testimony: Q.R.A.

 

Name: Q.R.A.
Age: 15
Date of incident: 30 March 2015
Location: Beit Ummar, West Bank
Accusation: Throwing stones
 
On 30 March 2015, a 15-year-old minor from Beit Ummar was arrested following the delivery of a written summons by Israeli soldiers at 1.30 a.m. He reports and being denied his basic legal rights under Israeli military law. He reports being sentenced to 1 month in prison and fined NIS 3,000. He also received a suspended sentence. 
 
Israeli soldiers came to our home at around 1:30 a.m. My father woke me up and told me the soldiers were asking for me. I got up and went to the living room where one of the soldiers asked me for my name. The soldiers did not search our house but they gave my father a document which said he had to take me to the police station in Etzion settlement the following day to meet "Captain Daoud" who wanted to question me.
 
My father and I went to the police station at 9:00 a.m. the following morning, 30 March 2015. They allowed me in but did not allow my father. The guard told him to go home. The interrogator then took me to the interrogation room.
 
Before he started to interrogate me he gave me a document in Arabic saying I had the right not to confess. He asked me to sign it but I was afraid of the implications so I did not sign it. I did not speak to a lawyer. 
 
The interrogator accused me of throwing stones at the settlement of Karmi Zur and setting fire to tires near the settlement. I denied the accusation and told him this was not true. Then he showed me a photo of a boy but I denied that it was me. He became angry and accused me of lying to him. He kicked and punched me in the stomach and in my face and swore at me saying I was "a son of a whore".
 
The interrogation lasted for about two hours. Another interrogator was in the room. He was big and scary. Whenever I remained silent and didn’t answer the questions of the first interrogator he would beat me. Still I insisted that I did not do anything wrong. The interrogator printed out my statement in Hebrew and asked me to sign it but I refused. He then called my father and asked him to convince me to confess. The interrogator then photographed me. He wanted to take my fingerprints but I refused.
 
I was then taken to see a doctor who examined me and gave me a form to fill out. I was then strip searched and taken to a cell. The soldiers asked me to crouch up and down during the search. I spent one night at Etzion.
 
The following day I was shackled and handcuffed and taken to Ofer prison, near Jerusalem, about one hour away. At Ofer I was strip searched before being taken to Section 13.
 
The following day I was taken for questioning by an intelligence officer inside Ofer. I was shackled and handcuffed. The officer did not inform me of my right to silence or of my right to consult with a lawyer. He accused me of the same accusations and showed me the same photograph. I denied that it was me in the picture. The interrogation lasted for about an hour and the interrogator did not printout any documents. I was then taken to Ofer military court.
 
My parents and a lawyer were in court. The hearing was adjourned. I had four other hearings. On the last hearing I accepted a plea bargain of four months in prison. My lawyer was able to reduce the sentence to one month in prison in return for a NIS 3,000 fine. I was also served with a suspended sentence of five months in prison valid for five years.
 
I spent the whole month at Ofer where I studies Arabic and mathematics. I was released from Ofer on 30 April 2015, at around 5:00 p.m.