Ahed Tamimi's trial has been deemed unfair and excessive by human rights defenders. | Photo: EFE Ahed Tamimi's trial has been deemed unfair and excessive by human rights defenders. | Photo: EFE

Ahed Tamimi's lawyer accuses interrogators of sexual harassment

"You have eyes like an angel," one of the two male interrogators told the 17-year-old, in an intimidating, "creepy" manner.

Ahed Tamimi's lawyer filed a complaint against Israeli interrogators accusing them of sexual harassment during her Dec. 26 questioning shortly after she was arrested over slapping an occupation soldier.

Her lawyer Gaby Lasky had complained to the attorney general multiple times about the improper behavior of one of the interrogators but the state proved unwilling to investigate the Israeli military actions against the teen. Now, an exclusive report by The Daily Beast news website is supporting Lasky's claims.

"You have eyes like an angel," one of the interrogators told the 17-year-old in Arabic, to which she responded with a cold stare and silence, according to the report. “She is seen keeping a calm, nonchalant demeanor when exposed to a series of routine questions," the U.S. news website added.

The Daily Beast obtained a nearly 2-hour-long interrogation video of the jailed Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi from Dec. 26, in which two male Israeli interrogators are seen bearing down on the minor with intimidation tactics, such as threats against her family, even resorting to objectifying comments, to coax her to answer questions.

The same interrogator also told Tamimi how she is like his sister, “spending all his money on clothes.” The Daily Beast claims to have seen the nearly two-hour interrogation video of Ahed's questioning, saying that “her rights as a minor seem to be of little concern to the two male interrogators bearing down on her.”

“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 Daily Beast report says.

Lasky called the sexual harassment of Tamimi “a gross violation of the law,” and complained about the fact that her client, a minor girl, was interrogated by two men, without the presence of a female officer or an interrogator specialized in questioning minors.

"This proves that the law enforcement system infringes upon the rights of Palestinian minors," Lasky's complaint warned.

Tamimi was charged with aggravated assault, obstructing the work of soldiers, and incitement, among other charges on Jan. 2. She was arrested on Dec. 19 after a video of her slapping two Israeli soldiers outside her home in the occupied West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, in mid-December went viral.

She is currently serving an 8-month jail sentence in the Ofer military camp near Ramallah, after reaching a plea bargain deal with military prosecutors.

An anonymous source told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the military court felt the need to put an end to the legal proceedings because they were bringing a lot of negative coverage from internaional media and human rights and social organizations, damaging the already-fragile army's reputation.

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(Source: telesurtv.net; April 5, 2018; http://bit.ly/2GBOGbm)
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