High court rejects appeal of policewoman indicted with abuse of Palestinian teen

[sharonbn]

High court head judge Asher Groniss, along with fellow judges Yoram Dantziger and Yitzhak Amit, unanimously rejected appeal of policewoman (border patrol) Shani Sevilia who was indicted on July 5th 2011 with abuse and assault of 17 y.o. Palestinian youth. Sevilia was sentenced for three months imprisonment and additional three months community service. She appealed before the high court to ease her punishment.

On the other hand, the state prosecution appealed to the high court with a request to harden the sentence. This appeal was rejected as well.

The incident took place on March 16th, 2010. The Palestinian boy was detained at "Rockefeller" checkpoint in east Jer'm after a search revealed hidden explosive detonators. He was handcuffed and blindfolded and given to custody of Sevilia and another policeman, Zion Benishti, in order to be transferred to "Shalem" police station.

During the ride in the armored police car, Sevilia beat the detainee until he started bleeding from his head. When they arrived in the police station and got out of the car, she kicked the teen in his butt and threatened his life by shouting "in 10 minutes you'll be dead".

The two police persons led the boy to an empty room on the stations' 3rd floor, where the abuse continued. The detainee was forced onto his knees, and then Sevilia got her pistol and without the knowledge of the detainee took out the bullets. She pressed the gun on his head and counted from 10 to 1. The boy, trembling, pleaded her to stop but she continued and at the end of the count pressed the trigger, shouting "death to Arabs" and "Arabs are whores".

In her trial in Jer'm district court, Sevilia admitted to the allegations and further admitted that the cause was racism against Arabs. The high court judges said in their summation that Sevilia exploited her position as a law officer to commit "a series of severe violent actions" that "one cannot ignore". On the other hand, the judges also pointed out alleviating circumstances on behalf of Sevilia: her young age, lack of criminal record and the regret she expressed.

Her lawyer, Rafael Frige, called the high court's double rejection "the lesser evil" and promised that his client would honor the final decision. He pointed out that the Palestinian victim was actually a terrorist himself, carrying dangerous explosives, yet he was released.

Sevilia herself said: "I regret my actions. This story is behind me now. I hope to open a new page in my life".

source: YNET, Haaretz.

[dayag]

What Sevilia did was wrong, but releasing the Palestinian kid who was caught with explosives detonators in his possession was idiocy.

[sharonbn]

Channel 8 (the cables' documentary channel) showed a documentary film where six recently released female soldiers were interviewed about their military service in the occupied territories during the 2nd intifada. some served in border patrol, some in combatant positions, some as paramedics, etc. their brutally honest accounts about what they have seen and done themselves gave the impression that actions like the one described above are not rare or even exceptional.

[dayag]

Channel 8 (the cables' documentary channel) showed a documentary film where six recently released female soldiers were interviewed about their military service in the occupied territories during the 2nd intifada. some served in border patrol, some in combatant positions, some as paramedics, etc. their brutally honest accounts about what they have seen and done themselves gave the impression that actions like the one described above are not rare or even exceptional.

So much for tohar haneshek.