Top cop said to accuse Justice Ministry of tampering with ramming investigation

Israel Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich is reportedly accusing the Justice Ministry’s Police Investigations Department of burying a key document in an investigation into the police shooting of a Bedouin teacher during an operation to demolish homes in his unrecognized village at the beginning of the year.

According to Hadashot News (formerly Channel 2 news), police say that a document containing testimonies of the incident was ignored by the Police Investigations Department, tasked with investigating alleged misdemeanor by officers.

The State Prosecutor on Tuesday asked the Justice Ministry to reopen an investigation into the police shooting of a Bedouin teacher during an operation to demolish homes in his unrecognized village at the beginning of the year.

In light of new evidence, the ministry’s Police Investigations Department was told to take another look at the events surrounding the death of Yaqoub Mousa Abu Al-Qia’an, who was slain by police in Umm al-Hiran during a nighttime incident in which his car drove into officers, killing one of them.

The incident was initially ruled terrorism, but authorities have indicated since that Abu Al-Qia’an likely lost control of the vehicle after being shot and did not intentionally hit the officers.

Police anger centers around a document prepared by the Shin Bet security agency, apparently backing up claims that the incident was a terror attack, Hahadashot News reports. Alsheich reportedly said that the Justice Ministry’s behavior amounts to “tampering” with the investigation.

In response the Justice Ministry said: “We are talking about an internal Shin Bet document that was not known to Police Investigations Department until recently. Immediately after the Police Investigations Department found out about it, the Shin Bet requested to give it be shared with investigators. The document was shared, studied and conclusions were drawn.”