Defense lawyer says officer compared Haredi rioters who broke into Military Police chief’s home to ‘Nukhba terrorists’

An attorney representing those arrested last night for breaching the home of the head of the IDF’s Military Police slams the Ashkelon Magistrate’s Court after it rules that 10 suspects implicated in the incident should be held in custody another day.

The suspects are charged with assaulting a police officer, malicious damage to property, criminal trespass, and unlawful assembly.

“We regret that the court did not see fit to send a sharp and clear message against the unrestrained conduct of a senior police officer. As revealed during the hearing, the Commander of the Ashkelon Station hurled appalling remarks at the detainees and compared them to Nukhba terrorists,” claims attorney Menachem Stauber, in a statement released by the Jerusalem Faction.

“When a remand request is born out of an atmosphere of hatred and dehumanization, it constitutes a vengeful arrest rather than a legal one. It is unacceptable for a police officer to pre-mark targets and exploit the nation’s most painful tragedies to justify depriving protesters of their liberty,” he declares.

An extremist ultra-Orthodox group numbering some 60,000 members, the Jerusalem Faction regularly demonstrates raucously against the military enlistment of yeshiva students. It operates a hotline to mobilize protesters against the arrest of draft dodgers and has been involved in paying evaders financial rewards.

During today’s hearing, Stauber claimed that the commander of the Ashkelon police station had told his clients that they were “sons of whores, terrorists, worse than terrorists” and compared them to Hamas’ elite Nukhba terrorist unit. The attorney further claimed that the damage to Military Police commander Brig. Gen. Yuval Yamin’s home “was caused by the police pushing the demonstrators.”

In his ruling, Judge Yaniv Ben Harush wrote that “the evidence presents a picture of an organized initiative to reach the home of a military police officer and intimidate him, while a large crowd entered his yard, causing damage to the yard, and sowing fear and terror among his family members.”

“These are serious acts, and while every person in a democratic country is granted the right to express his protest on a given issue in public dispute, the respondents’ behavior exceeded the limits of legitimate protest,” Ben Harush wrote.

The military on Tuesday evening said the extremists broke into Military Police commander Brig. Gen. Yuval Yamin’s home “while his family was inside.” Yamin himself was not at home at the time. Police said in a statement that the rioters “trespassed into the yard, acted violently, and disrupted the routine of life in the area.”

Police later announced that 25 suspects, among them minors, were arrested.

Responding to condemnations by the prime minister, IDF chief of staff and others, the Jerusalem Faction said on Tuesday: “Red lines have been crossed; leave the Torah students alone.”

According to the Jerusalem Faction, 26 suspects were arrested on Tuesday evening, 14 of whom were released overnight. An additional two minor suspects were released during the day, the group states.