First Amona Police Brutality Case Goes to Trial

The first indictment resulting from the police riot at Amona has finally gone to trial. Today on the 28th police officer David Edri will be tried for his assault on Yehuda Etzion.

Edri rode down Yehuda Etzion (seen above) on horseback, struck him with the horse knocking him down and trampled him under the horse's legs. The indictment states, Etzion "hit his head on the ground, and was caused many bruises on his entire body, including internal bleeding in his right foot and a cut in his skull... Edry attacked Etzion illegally and caused him genuine injury."

This is the first case from the Amona police riot to go to trial despite numerous photos and videos showing horrendous brutality, thus far it took this long to get one to trial. Meanwhile policemen in uniform have been attending the trial during work hours (some with nametags removed) to support Edri. This sends an ominious message to the victims and to the judge.

Edri's lawyer has stayed that his client's behavior was reasonably controlled. By contrast mounted police expert Amir Dufdivani testified that when a horse's bridle is release it does not race towards people, but that Edri forced it towards Etzion. Etzion has already won a civil case against Edri winning an award of 23,000 NIS.

Rivka Friedman-Feldman is presiding over the current trial which is a criminal case.