Slippery Slope

A police officer was acquitted of a charge of sexual harassment committed against a national service draftee who served with him because the harassment only occurred during one telephone call, and in all his further attempts to call her she hung up the phone.

(Hebrew – Ynet)

The Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court acquitted Tuesday morning three young Arab women and a young Arab man of the offenses of participating in an illegal assembly, causing a disturbance and assaulting police officers, during a demonstration against Operation Cast Lead in 2008. In his verdict, Judge Ido Druyan strongly criticized the police and prosecution, saying there was no fear of a disturbance during the gathering and “certainly there was no justification for the hasty and sloppy submission of this failed indictment.” Druyan ordered the verdict be passed on to senior officers in the Tel Aviv district and countrywide in order for them to learn a lesson from the affair. (Haaretz)

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court judge Hanna Miriam Lump acquitted two left-wing activists from charges of insulting a public official and interfering with a public official in his duty, determining that the testimonies of Border Policemen against the two were not reliable, since the policemen coordinated their testimonies and the indictment was served only after the activists filed a complaint with the Department for the Investigation of Police Officers against one of their arresting officers.

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

A Jerusalem Court acquitted two 14 year old boys charged with the rape of a 13 year old girl, even though both defendants confessed to and implicated each other in the crime.  The acquittal was made possible after it was revealed that the investigators used improper means to obtain the confessions.

(Hebrew – Walla!)

The Tel-Aviv Magistrates’ Court acquitted a defendant charged with possession of a knife, after it was determined that he was discriminated against due to being an Arab.

(Hebrew – Walla)