Ramallah: The Jerusalem Magistrates Court has ordered the release of 16-year-old Palestinian Hassan Afif Al Afifi, of Occupied East Jerusalem, on bail and placed him under house arrest for 14 days.

In an interview with Gulf News, Afif Al Afifi, Hassan’s father, said that the Israeli authorities have not been able to come up with any evidence against his son. He also alleges that he was brutally attacked by the Israeli Special Forces and urgently needed medical treatment, but Hassan was not provided with the necessary treatment until he was handed to Al Maskoubiah Detention Centre.

The Israeli authorities have accused the grade 11 student with stone throwing in Al Aqsa Compound during the recent clashes with the Israeli colonists and the Armed Forces, and of the attempted murder of an Israeli soldier who they claim was stabbed.

Al Afifi said that the Israeli Public Prosecution had not been able to provide the court with solid evidence to indict Hassan. The Israeli authorities claimed that the finger prints on the knife were those of Hassan, but the report of the Israeli Criminal Investigation Lab proved that they were not his.

The father who also suffered fractures said that the Israeli authorities claimed to have arrested Hassan in Al Aqsa Compound. However, the surrounding surveillance cameras showed that Hassan was arrested by the Israeli Special Forces in front of his home which is located in Bab Al Hadid, next to Al Aqsa Mosque.

Al Afifi said on the day of the events he was standing with his son in front of their home to watch the clashes and that the Israeli Special Forces threw huge numbers of tear gas bombs. Initially they attempted to arrest him (the father), but Hassan pulled his father back and sent him inside the home. The Israeli forces arrested Hassan instead and badly beat him in front of his father. When the father attempted to get his son back from their hands, he was himself beaten up by the Israeli forces.

Al Afifi said that the Israeli court could not admit a mistake was committed by the Israeli forces and that was the real background for the court’s verdict which was not fair at all.

“The case was fully proved to be fake and all the claims of the Israeli authorities were dismissed by the court itself,” he said.

“I find no reason for the bail and the house arrest.”

The court ordered the father to pay 10,000 Shekels for bail, but the father refused to pay and the court had it reduced by 50 per cent.

Hassan will not be allowed outside his house till October 23 and his father is to accompany him to school and on his way back home. In the event of a violation to the court order, the Afifi family will lose the bail money and the Israeli authorities would possibly re-arrest Hassan.