Family of Ahed Tamimi releases interrogation video

The family of a Palestinian teenager jailed for assaulting Israeli soldiers has released excerpts from a video of her interrogation. The December footage purports to show Ahed Tamimi being questioned by two male Israeli officers.

At the start of the interrogation, the then 16-year old is seen being asked whether she had spoken to a lawyer, and she nods her head. She then remains silent, refusing to give her name or respond. One of the officers threatens Tamimi with the arrest of her relatives if she refuses to cooperate, commenting on her fair skin and "eyes of an angel."

Read more: Palestinian teenager who slapped Israeli soldier to serve 8 months in jail

In the video, one of the interrogators is identified as a police officer and the second as a member of Israel's military intelligence.

"The rounds of interrogation came after various methods of physical and psychological pressures put on her," her father Bassem told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

He said she had been kept in isolation and regularly moved between locations.

"She was deprived of sleep for long periods of time. In the final round of interrogations it was more than 34 hours without sleep."

Read more: Israel arrests Palestinian girl Ahed Tamimi over soldier slapping

Complaint over 'threats, coercion and sexual innuendo'

The interrogation video was part of the case file handed to the defense after Tamini was charged, according to Israeli activist Jonathan Pollack, who is involved with her legal strategy.

Tamimi's lawyer filed a complaint with the Israeli military over the tactics used, including apparent threats, coercion and sexual innuendo said Pollack. The military said the complaint has been handed to the Justice Ministry and is being "thoroughly examined."

The group campaigning for her release said the video was released to its lawyers under an Israeli law which grants access to certain amounts of material. It said the footage had been made public to show the interrogation of children in Israeli prisons.

Protest history

Tamimi is serving eight months in prison as part of a plea deal reached with Israeli military prosecutors after slapping and kicking the two Israeli soldiers outside her West Bank home in mid-December.

The teenager comes from a family with a long history of protests against Israeli occupation. She is well-known for her protests against the Israel Defense Forces and pictures of her confronting troops are widely published.

When she was only a child, a photograph of her standing up to Israeli soldiers earned Tamimi an invitation to meet then-Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Then in 2015, a picture of the girl biting the hand of an Israeli soldier trying to arrest her brother became a symbolic photo shared widely around the world.

Residents of the village where Tamimi lives, Nabi Saleh, have staged weekly demonstrations since 2009 against restrictions on Palestinian access to land due to Jewish settlers in the area.  

kw/kms (AP, AFP)

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