East Jerusalem man files official police complaint over gun-planting episode

An East Jerusalem Palestinian who was falsely portrayed as having a rifle hidden in his home in a police documentary on TV has filed an official complaint with the police’s internal investigations department.

Police apologized for the incident Tuesday and said they would investigate, after Samer Sleiman said he had been identified and ostracized despite his face being blurred.

East Jerusalem resident Samer Sleiman who is suing police for planting a gun in his house during the filming of a television docudrama (courtesy)

He was set to file a complaint accusing the police of slandering him and harming his privacy.

“Why did they choose me,” he tells reporters upon entering police headquarters in Jerusalem to file the complaint. “I didn’t even know it was being filmed for TV. … they didn’t ask me and just said there is an order.”

Police said they had intelligence of smuggled weapons, but when they did not find one, planted one for the cameras instead. They blamed the show’s producers for the idea.

Sleiman also confirms a report that he received a threatening call from someone he understood to be a police officer telling him to back off the case.

“It’s not good for you to make so much noise. It would be better to put this in a quiet corner,” he says the person told him, according to Ynet.