Four Border Police officers charged in beating of Palestinian suspect

3 of the cops also indicted for destroying evidence after allegedly deleting bodycam footage; case made headlines over accusation suspect was branded with Star of David

Arwah Sheikh Ali after his arrest, August 20, 2023. (Courtesy)
Arwah Sheikh Ali after his arrest, August 20, 2023. (Courtesy)

The Department of Internal Police Investigations charged four Border Police officers Tuesday in the alleged assault of an East Jerusalem man last year, in a case that made headlines after the victim appeared to have been branded with a Star of David on his face.

Indictments were filed at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court over the assault of suspected drug dealer Arwah Sheikh Ali, 22, a resident of the Shuafat refugee camp.

Three of the officers were also charged with destroying evidence, on suspicion of having deleted bodycam and cellphone footage of the attack.

The incident happened last August and caused an uproar when a picture emerged of bruises on Sheikh Ali’s left cheek that looked like the bottom of a Star of David.

Police said the bruises came from arresting officers’ items of clothing, and suggested it happened when an officer pressed the laced-up part of his boot against the suspect’s face while they subdued him.

In May, DIPI said that seven officers would be charged over the incident.

According to the filed indictments, during a search at Sheikh Ali’s home for weapons and drugs, officers found a substance they suspected was cannabis. Sheikh Ali was uncooperative so officers forcibly bound him while his wife and children watched, the indictments said.

A photo released by police on August 19, 2023, shows the boot of a police officer that allegedly caused cut marks on Palestinian detainee’s face. A lawyer for the suspect alleges police branded him with a Star of David. (Israel Police)

They tied a garbage bag over his eyes and took him into a side room in his home with his hands tied behind his back. There one of the officers kicked him in the face, causing him to bleed. Officers beat, slapped, and kicked him, the charges said. The accused officers also bound his hands and feet behind his back “without any justification or need” while Sheikh Ali cried out in pain, the indictments said.

Officers also cursed and verbally humiliated Sheikh Ali, with one of the accused saying “Shut up or I will tear your ear off,” prosecutors said.

According to the indictments, three officers deleted footage from bodycams that recorded the incident, as well as photos taken with one of their cellphones, allegedly to prevent them from being used as evidence against them.

DIPI initially believed that there was no footage of the arrest and that all 16 officers who were present had their body cameras turned off during the incident.

Sheikh Ali was eventually arrested on suspicion of being in possession of narcotics. He filed an official complaint with the Justice Ministry’s DIPI several days after the arrest, which made headlines over its apparent brutal nature.

Arwah Sheikh Ali, who alleges police branded him with a Star of David as he was being arrested in East Jerusalem’s Shuafat refugee camp, files a complaint at the Justice Ministry’s Department of Internal Police Investigations, on August 22, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court Judge Amir Shaked said during one of Sheikh Ali’s remand hearings that police had “no reasonable explanation” for the bruises on his face.

He was released to house arrest in August last year.

At the time, the court criticized Sheikh Ali’s detainment in a police station for several days, instead of in a holding facility. The judge also noted that Sheikh Ali had not been allowed to be examined by a physician despite an earlier court ruling mandating it.

A police spokesperson responded at the time to the allegations of brutality by saying officers used “reasonable force” to detain the suspect and that the bruise was likely caused by “an article of clothing of one of the officers.” Accompanying the police’s statement was a photo of the triangular patterns of laces on an officer’s boot, implying they caused the bruise when they were pressed against the suspect’s face.

The explanation did not satisfy thousands of Israelis, including prominent protest activists, who commented on it on social networks. Some participants in weekly protests against the government were, at the time, documented wearing a Star of David made of lipstick on their cheeks.

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