Testimony: R.I.H.
Name: | R.I.H. |
Age: | 16 |
Date of incident: | 15 February 2015 |
Location: | Husan, West Bank |
Accusation: | Molotov cocktails |
On 15 February 2015, a 16-year-old minor from Husan was arrested by Israeli soldiers from home at 2.00 a.m. and accused of throwing Molotov cocktails. He reports being denied his basic legal rights under Israeli military law. He reports being released without charge about 10 hours after his arrest.
I woke up to the sound of banging at our front door. It was 2.00 a.m. When I got up a group of Israeli soldiers were already inside our home. They had a camera and they were recording the arrest from beginning to end. They were very calm. I think they were border police and not regular soldiers.
The soldiers immediately told my father they had come to arrest me and that they wanted to take me to the settlement of Etzion for interrogation. They also told him they were going to ask me some questions and release me by noon if it was clear that I had done nothing wrong. They did not give my father any documents.
I was then told to get dressed. After I was dressed I was taken out of our house and immediately handcuffed to the front. The handcuffs were not painful. Then I was put in the back of a jeep and I sat on a seat. I was blindfolded inside the jeep. The jeep drove for about five minutes towards a nearby Israeli military base.
At the base I sat on the ground until around 7.00 a.m. when I was taken to see a doctor who examined me. The blindfold was removed during the examination. I was then driven to the police station in Etzion. The drive took about 30 minutes but I remained in the vehicle until around 9.30 a.m.
At Etzion I was immediately taken to see an interrogator. The interrogator removed the blindfold and started to interrogate me. I was in the room with the interrogator by myself. The interrogator did not inform me of any rights.
The interrogator scared me because he was angry. I was very scared when he shouted at me and accused me of throwing Molotov cocktail at settlers. I denied the accusation and told him I didn’t throw anything at anyone. He shouted back at me and told me I was a liar. He called me "a fucker son of a whore". He then told me if it wasn’t me who threw Molotovs at the settlers then for sure I knew who did. I told him I didn’t know who threw the Molotov cocktails. He then told me I was accused of throwing not only one Molotov but eight. He showed me a box full of Molotov bottles and told me my fingerprints were found on them. I told him this was impossible.
The interrogation lasted for about an hour. During this time the interrogator did not show me any evidence, such as photographs, and did not tell me there were confessions against me. I felt the whole reason for interrogating me was to collect information. In the end the interrogator printed out a document in Hebrew and asked me to sign it but I refused. He threatened that if I didn’t sign the document he wasn’t going to release me. Still, I didn’t sign it. He then told me to get ready to be transferred to Ofer prison, near Jerusalem.
I was taken to a nearby room where I sat on a bench until around noon. A soldier then told me I was going to be released. He removed the handcuff and took me outside the police station. I walked for about 15 minutes and then I stopped a taxi which took me home.