Sentencing a child for 3 years of actual imprisonment…and the court’s guards assault another
The District court sentenced on Sunday 17-year old Tarek Khaled Odeh for 38 months of actual imprisonment, on charges of throwing stones and firecrackers at a settlement outpost in Silwan. Ishaq Odeh said that his brother was arrested in mid-January, and he was put in Al-Maskobyeh cells for 22 days after he was arrested in order to get him to confess. Tarek’s lawyer was not allowed to visit him during that period, and even clothes were not allowed in. The court sessions were confidential, in addition to placing him in a small dark cell which was really cold and had nails placed on its edges; Tarek went on a hunger strike for two days. Ishaq explained that his brother Tarek was arrested 4 times. The first time was two years ago and he was detained for few hours, and the second arrest was on 23/01/2011 when he was walking with his cousins and he was accused of throwing Molotov cocktails on the settlement outpost “Bet Yonathan” in which he was detained in Al-Maskobyeh for 9 days, and was then released on conditions of house arrest and stayign away from his house. The third time he was arrested was when he was under house arrest for three and a half months, and was then released on conditions of house arrest and staying away from his sister for 9 months which ended last June. It is noteworthy that the court’s guards assaulted Tarek’s cousin 16-year old Mohammad Asi during the session and severely beat him. Ishaq said: “the court’s guards prevented him from attending Tarek’s court session and while he was standing by the door, seven guards assaulted him and directly hit him using their hands and legs, and then took him to the searching room by the court’s main gate and continued assaulting him, and one of them threatened to arrest him if he comes to court another time.” He pointed out that Mohammad suffered from bruises and wounds in his face and head.
