The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court accepted a tort claim filed by a young Haredi man against the police - for false arrest and negligent management of criminal proceedings, which ended in a complete acquittal.
The plaintiff, who will be represented by Attorney Barak Kedem, a partner at the Arbus Kedem Tzur law firm, will be compensated in a total amount of approximately NIS 414,000.
The affair began in December 2013, during a demonstration against the conscription of yeshiva students in Jerusalem.
The plaintiff, then an 18-year-old immigrant from Australia, was arrested on suspicion of throwing a rock at security forces. In the arrest report and in his testimony, Officer D. claimed that he recognized the plaintiff as committing the offense, maintained continuous eye contact with him, ran towards him, and overpowered him together with another officer.
But this version collapsed in the face of documentation from a series of photos and a video presented by my young lawyer.
The documentation clearly showed that the police officer was standing a significant distance from the plaintiff at the moment of the arrest and was looking in another direction - and the arrest was actually carried out by completely different police officers, who are not mentioned in the report.
In addition, the police version of "chase" and "violent resistance" did not match the visual findings on the ground.
The ruling determined that the police officers were negligent, at the very least, in filling out the arrest reports and submitting their statements to the police, which did not reflect the facts.
The judge emphasized that these reports constitute a fundamental element on which the prosecution relies in its decision to file an indictment, and therefore the fundamental contradictions that were revealed should not be taken lightly. "The obvious conclusion is, at the very least, negligence on the part of the police officers... What was written in the arrest report did not reflect the course of events.".
The lengthy criminal proceedings and arrest left a deep psychological mark on the young man.
An expert appointed by the court determined that the plaintiff suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, which gives him a permanent disability of 101% to 3%.
The court awarded compensation for non-pecuniary damage - pain and suffering, as well as compensation for lost wages and medical expenses. In total, the police were ordered to pay the young man 328,605 NIS. In addition, the state was ordered to pay 23.4% in attorney's fees - approximately 77 thousand NIS and to reimburse expert expenses and fees.
Attorney Barak Kedem of the Arbus Kedem Tzur law firm: "The excessive enforcement of the police against Haredi demonstrations compared to other demonstrations is blatantly expressed in this unfortunate case. I am glad that the court understood the seriousness of the police actions and awarded the victim adequate compensation.".
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