Ahed Tamimi
Photo: AP
Report: interrogator told Palestinian teen provocateur 'you have eyes like an angel'
Claiming to have seen nearly 2-hour interrogation of Ahed Tamimi, who was sentenced for slapping an IDF soldier, the Daily Beast alleges that one interlocutor 'flirted' with her, that she was questioned in an 'overbearing and intimidating manner'.
The American Daily Beast news website reported Wednesday that the Palestinian teen provocateur, Ahed Tamimi,
who was sentenced
to eight months in jail for slapping an IDF soldier and accosting his comrade, was interrogated in an “overbearing and intimidating manner” and that her interlocutors attempted to flirt with her in a “creepy” way.
“You have eyes like an angel,” one of the investigators reportedly said to Tamimi, a comment that was met with “a cold stare and silence.”
The Daily Beast claims to have seen the nearly two-hour interrogation video of Tamimi from December 26 last year, saying that “her rights as a minor seem to be of little concern to the two male interrogators bearing down on her.”
It also reports quotes from her testimony in the investigation after she was filmed in the incident with the IDF soldiers during Nabi Salih riots.
Ahed Tamimi in court (צילום: רויטרס)
During the judicial proceedings, the Palestinian icon’s defense attorney Gabi Leski said that one of the investigators sexually harassed her client and had therefore approached the attorney general on the matter, but had yet to receive a response.
“Handcuffed and sitting at a desk in a police office, Ahed watches and withstands the security officials’ escalation from theatrical displays of good cop-bad cop and creepy attempts at flirting to terrifying threats against her family,” the report claims.
(Photo: AFP)
The report goes on to claim that the second interrogator intervened after realizing that his colleague’s tactics were failing and therefore resorted to what was described as “direct intimidation.”
“I’m an interrogator from Israel. We walk in line with the law ... In all the areas the law is Israeli, the law of the military. And you have to listen to the law, you and all the family,” the report alleges Tamimi was told in an authoritative manner.
A variety of tactics failed to nudge the Palestinian provocateur into cooperating with them, leading one of the interrogators, the report alleged, who "becomes flustered”, to throw his notepad and remove his gun, “telling Ahed that it isn’t an interrogation and pleading with her to chat with him. Ahed says nothing.”
(Photo: AP)
When that fails, in continues, Tamimi is presented with videos of “what appear” to be her assault on the IDF soldiers and protests in her hometown.
“The expression on her face softens. The interrogator pounces. ‘Your mom, this is the voice of your mom! Whose voice is that?’ he demands. Clearly distressed, Ahed keeps her lips sealed. He then threatens her with jail time. She remains silent,” the article describes, noting that throughout, Tamimi maintained her silence until the interrogator began “threatening to arrest her family and friends” after which her “expression melts into a look of horror followed by melancholy.”
Tamimi’s lawyer responded to the report, saying that her client had “maintained the right to silence, even though her interrogation was carried out in violation of her rights between an investigator and a minor.”
Leski said that she had filed a complaint to the Police Investigation Unit via the attorney general, but that the former had said it has no authority to investigate the interlocutor since he is not a police officer.
Attorney Gabi Leski (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)
“Therefore, I again turned to the attorney general in order that the authorized individual open an investigation,” Tamimi’s advocate said.
“Since then, despite the fact that this was an invalid investigation in which the Military Intelligence Directorate explicitly threatened to arrest the family relatives of the minor if she continues to maintain her silence, and in which the same interrogator abused his status and related to the appearance of a minor under interrogation in flagrant violation of the law, an investigation has still not been opened by the authorized officials against someone who presented himself as an investigator in the IDF’s intelligence branch,” she complained.
“This is further proof that the law-enforcement apparatus harms the rights of Palestinian minors, and the time has come to realize that a self-respecting society cannot discriminate and harm minors from whatever side,” Leski concluded.
The IDF said that the “issue was being examined.”
