Slippery Slope

Supreme Court Justice Yoram Danziger criticized the police for negligence in the investigation of Sadi Saleh on suspicion of igniting a cellular tower in Beit Jann. The court found that the police failed to examine all footage from security cameras, yet this negligence does not amount to a reasonable doubt in Saleh’s responsibility for the crime.

(Hebrew)

The State Attorney’s Office announced to the Village Council Heads the West Bank villages of Ein Arik, Dir Abziya, and Beitunia, that an expropriation act of 590 dunam [about 146 acres] of their residents’ land has been annulled. The announcement follows an appeal to the High Court of Justice. The expropriated land was designated for building a shorter road from the settlement of Talmon to Jerusalem.

High Court of Justice Judge Noam Solberg, approved the expulsion of Elena Boso, a nurse from the Philippines working in Israel. Boso claims that she is the common-law spouse of an Israeli man, but the Ministry of the Interior found that their relationship is “an arrangement of convenience for acquiring status.” Although an appeal is still being discussed in court, Judge Solberg assessed that it does not stand a high chance of succeeding, and therefore there is no reason to delay the expulsion.

(Hebrew)

Supreme Court Justices ruled that the Attorney General’s office withheld evidence from the defense, which had the potential to acquit their defendant, and this evidence only came to light during the supreme court appeal.

(Hebrew - News1)

Judge Noga Ohad dropped the appeal on one of her cases, because of a slight delay in the deposit of bail, and without hearing the claims of both sides in the case as required by the civil code. The Supreme Court dismissed Ohad’s ruling, declared that the deposit of bail should be accounted for as if it was posted on time, and ordered to hear the appeal on its merits.

(Hebrew)

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel has appealed to the High Court of Justice in the name of Ben Gurion University students forbidden to display anti-government banners on campus by university management. The appeal was submitted after the district court in Be’er Sheva rejected the students’ request.

(Hebrew)

This weekend the police arrested Eli Buhbut, 20, of Netanya, after he attacked a doctor at Laniado hospital. Local Magistrate’s Court Judge Hadas Ovadia denied the police request to retain Buhbut under arrest until proceedings are complete. She permitted the police to delay Buhbut’s release by one day, in order to file an appeal to the Petach Tikva District Court. However, instead of filing an appeal, the police filed charges with the Petach Tikva Court, and the hearing was held before Justice Ovadia.

(Hebrew)

The Supreme Court criticized the police and hundreds of policemen, following their appeal to have financial benefits returned to them which had been denied because they had been granted through faulty procedures in the first place. The policemen received the benefit in return for rabbinical studies. Supreme Court Justice Ayala Procaccia wrote in her decision that “this case, where hundreds of policemen were granted extensive pay benefits which they did not merit, while using documentation that apparently reflected false information, heavily stains the people involved in it and greatly damages the status of the police and the public’s faith in the purity of its actions.” (Hebrew)