PRESS BRIEF | Adalah appeals closure of PID probe into police brutality against Umm Al-Fahem resident

On 1 September 2022, Adalah, on behalf of B.M., a Palestinian resident of Umm Al-Fahem, filed an appeal to Israel’s State Attorney’s Office against Israel’s Police Investigation Department’s (PID) decision to close a complaint against the police for its brutal treatment of B.M. in May 2021. B.M. was brutally beaten by police, and prevented from receiving emergency medical care during the May 2021 events, despite him not being involved in any protests.  He was held at a police station and released shortly after, and was hospitalized for wounds sustained resulting from police brutality. In the appeal, Adalah argued that the PID adopted the police's version without conducting an effective and efficient investigation, did not summon witnesses or collect action reports of some of the police officers involved in the incident, and did not use the means at its disposal in order to legally establish a factual basis. Adalah demanded the immediate opening of an objective, independent, and efficient criminal investigation, and to prosecute the officers involved for serious assault, inflicting serious injury, and threats in violation of Israel’s Penal Law.