No assault charge against haredim who assaulted police officers

The State Prosecutor's Office quashed the majority of charges against Joseph Brown and Jacob Krichevsky who attacked police officers as they tried to rescue a haredi soldier in the Mea Shearim neighborhood in Jerusalem.

Original charges included aggravated assault of a police officer, disturbing a police officer in the line of duty and rioting.

The two recently admitted to rioting under a revised indictment.

Charges relating to the hurling of stones, iron bars and empty glass bottles as well as spitting at officers, were dropped. The revised indictment comes a month after charges were first brought against the two men.

Officials at the Jerusalem Police were hardly pleased with the State's decision to withdraw the more serious charges, even as officers testified to clearly detecting the defendants assaulting their fellow policemen.

According depositions taken at the scene, two officers testified to seeing Brown lifting objects and throwing them at policemen.

Another officer said Krichevsky was hurling stones and glass bottles at police officers. According to the officer, Krichevsky became unruly as he was being detained and kicked and spat on the officers.

According to the original indictment, A., a soldier, went to visit his uncle who lives in the neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem last month. The soldier arrived at the neighborhood dressed in a military uniform and wearing a yarmulke. As he walked through the neighborhood, passersby yelled at him, calling him “Hardak (frivolous haredi)” and shouting at him to "Go away."

About 50 meters from his uncle’s office, a bag of trash was thrown at the soldier.

The soldier, who noticed a crowd gathering around him, fled to his uncle's office. He locked himself inside with his relative and called police, who came to rescue him.

With the arrival of the police, the indictment said, many people had started to congregate, among them the two defendants, who threw rocks, iron bars, chairs and buckets of water at the police officers.

Two policemen grabbed the defendant and told him he was under arrest, but he tried to evade them. On the way to the police cruiser, Brown asked friends to help him escape the police, and he even tried to escape himself by grabbing the hands of his friends.

Krichevsky, according to the indictment, threw stones, pieces of metal and glass bottles at police who were working at the scene. Some of the stones and bars hit police officer Gal Attia, who had approached the defendant's direction.

Two police officers arrested him and then he became even more agitated, kicked at officers, and spit on them.