Israeli daily, Haaretz, reports today that the complaint about severe police violence against imprisoned protesters after a demonstration outside Ramle prison made by the Adalah advocacy group two weeks ago has been passed to the Israeli Justice Ministry because of the serious nature of the complaint. The police violence was said to include the use of Taser electroshock weapons, the beating and kicking of bound detainees, racist verbal abuse and sexual harassment of female detaineesThe complaint was filed to the ministry’s department for investigation of police officers by the Adalah advocacy group two weeks ago after a demonstration in support of hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners outside the prison clinic in Ramle.
According to Adalah’s letter, after most of the demonstrators had left, about 30 of them formed a protest vigil near one of the prison gates and police commandos at the site attacked them with extreme violence and arrested eight of them.
A few of the remaining activists came to the Ramle prison station to wait for their colleagues’ release and started singing. One personal statement said that police commandos attacked them in a frenzy of violence and beat them up, using tasers on them, kicking and swearing. ‘He kicked me, pulled my hair and threw me to the floor of the room the men were held in.’
The statement continued ‘Some of them were in a locked cell and others were on the floor. Two of the men were bound and blindfolded. A cop tasered all those on the floor. ….. None of the detainees resisted, even slightly. The cop threatened that if he hears us talking he will taser us again … Throughout the evening cops and officers mocked our names, our dress and our appearance,’ she wrote.
Another detainee wrote in his statement, ‘We heard the women shouting. A few bound youngsters were brought into the room, some screaming with pain….’
‘The policemen sexually harassed the female Arab detainees, ….’ Adalah attorney Orna Cohen wrote to the department.
Two other female detainees and a man who happened to be at the police station and witnessed the policemen’s violent behavior also attached statements to the complaint.
A police spokeswoman told Haaretz that due to the severe suspicions rising from the complaint the police passed it on to the Justice Ministry department.
