An Israeli Border Police officer was charged Monday with sexually harassing a female suspect, making inappropriate sexual remarks and threatening the woman during an interrogation.
Hamed Shanan, a 40-year-old investigator from the Druze town of Hurfeish is accused of making sexual comments at the suspect who was presumed to have been involved in illegally transporting her mother-in-law from the West Bank to Israel.
According to the indictment, which was filed by the Police Internal Investigations Department, A. (alias) arrived at a Border Police base to be questioned along with her husband, mother, and infant daughter.
Shanan sat on one side of the table and A. was in front of him. Toward the end of the interrogation, Shanan asked her about her martial status, and she replied that she is married with two children.
At this point, Shanan began making sexual remarks, asking her when she got pregnant. After the woman said the process took time., Shanan replied: "You should have gotten pregnant on the first night," while making an indecent gesture with his fist.
He then asked whether her daughter was still breastfeeding, and A. said yes. Shanan said to her in Arabic: "she must enjoy it." The female suspect ignored his remarks, but he did not stop.
"I wish you could nurse me," he told her. A. couldn't remain indifferent any longer, so she got up and started yelling at him: "Who do you think you are? I can get you arrested and send you to jail." Shanan threatened the woman in response: "If you open your mouth and say something, I'll arrest you and put you in jail."
Immediately after the incident, A. left the interrogation room and called her husband, who was waiting at the entrance to the base. After telling him what happened, the two returned to the room and confronted Shanan.
During the argument, A. and her husband demanded his personal information. Shanan scribbled on a note his personal information, erased it, and then wrote false details.
"In the acts described, the accused sexually harassed the complainant while carrying out his duties and abusing his authority, taking advantage of the complainant's dependency on him as a public servant. The accused also threatened to unlawfully infringe on the complainant's liberty with the intention of intimidating and mocking her," the indictment said.
A member of the Police Internal Investigations Department told Ynet: "The department considers the phenomenon of sexual harassment to be serious. And every complaint that comes is being treated professionally and thoroughly, and over the course of the year, the department even worked to raise the penalty bar for sexual harassment offenses."