Police officer indicted for assaulting handcuffed detainee

A police officer was indicted today for allegedly assaulting a detainee while he was handcuffed at the Ariel police station in the West Bank in September.

According to the charges, 41-year-old Yaakov Saidoff, a duty officer at the station, allegedly beat the detainee after he cursed a female police officer. The policewoman reported the incident to Saidoff, prompting him to enter the room where the detainee was being held and order him to sit down.

When the detainee refused, the officer violently attacked him, pushing him against the wall and knocking him to the floor, according to the indictment. He allegedly beat the detainee all over his body, while shouting at him to “sit down on the chair or I’ll break your whole face.”

Saidoff also threatened to sit on the detainee’s neck should he curse him again, per the indictment.

The beating left the detainee with a hemorrhage in his right hand and tenderness in his right wrist and ankle, the charges say.

The officer is charged with assault causing bodily harm and issuing threats, according to the indictment filed in the Kfar Saba Magistrate’s Court today. The case was investigated by the Department for Internal Police Investigations.