Three indictments were filed in the Magistrate's Court this morning (Sunday) against the attackers of the police in Kafr Qassem last week.
The prosecution also filed a motion to detain the defendants until the end of the legal proceedings against them.
As you may recall, police officers who came to arrest a suspect in an attack at the town hall encountered members of the Kafr Qassem security company belonging to the Islamic Movement.
One of the officers used a taser pistol and was subsequently punched by one of the suspects.
Others pushed and beat cops.
The municipality of Kfar Qassem condemned the incident.
The Central District Attorney's Office (Criminal) filed an indictment in the Kfar Saba court against Islam Taha (38) and Ali Issa (33) from Kfar Qassem, and against Hamada 'Assi (24) from Kfar Bara, for aggravated assault of a police officer, injury, threats, interference The policeman and the opposition to the arrest, each according to his part, after they violently attacked policemen who came to establish order in the city of Kfar Qassem and prevented them from carrying out their work.
Police attack in Kafr Qassem // Archive photo
According to the indictment, filed by Adv. Dudi Inbar, a private organization known as "Hashmira" operates in Kfar Qassem, which aims to establish order in the area and conduct "forgiveness" among the locals, and of which defendant Taha is one of its volunteers.
On October 1, during a police patrol in the city of Kafr Qassem, a patrol officer and a volunteer who was with him were informed about a man who was raging nearby, rioting, beating several people and damaging property.
The police also learned that members of the "guarding" organization, including Taha, captured the man, beat him, put him in a vehicle on their behalf and drove away while he was in their vehicle.
Following this, the police arrived at the public municipal building, where the same person was being held by members of the organization, and asked to see him.
Taha, by virtue of his position in the "guard" organization, stood a buffer between the police and the door of the building and refused to move, claiming that police intervention would only create a mess.
As soon as they arrived at the scene, a police officer and a volunteer also joined the police.
Over time, people began to gather around the policemen, shouting at them and insulting them, until one of the policemen had to pull out a "shocker" device at Taha in order to deter him.
At one point, the building's door was opened from the inside by Assi, who later learned that he was the person captured by members of the organization, and when he tried to leave the building, a confrontation broke out between Taha who guarded the door from the outside and local police.
As a result, one of the officers activated the shocker as he pinned it to Taha's abdomen, who responded by giving three punches to the officer's face.
All the while, Defendant Issa stood by the side, shouted at the policemen and cursed at them, until at some point he started attacking the volunteer who was at the scene.
Under the auspices of the riot, defendant Assi managed to get out of the building and attack the police on the spot.
Later, he tried to resist his arrest, and upon arriving at the police station he continued to rave and wounded himself by hitting his head and body with the cell door with great force.
As a result, Assi needed medical treatment and when he was taken to the hospital, he tried to attack one of the policemen who accompanied him in order to escape from the scene.
Defendants Taha and Issa turned themselves in immediately after the incidents, while defendant Assi fled the scene but turned himself in a day later at the police station.