{"id":624320,"date":"2026-09-22T22:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T22:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/624320\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T22:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T22:44:13","slug":"tel-aviv-court-rebukes-ips-over-tsarafi-prison-video-bars-solitary-confinement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/624320\/","title":{"rendered":"Tel Aviv court rebukes IPS over Tsarafi prison video, bars solitary confinement"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tel Aviv District Court barred the Israel Prison Service (IPS) from holding 19-year-old Agam Tsarafi, a defendant in the Benyahu Razi murder case, in solitary confinement, and it limited her current arrangement to an additional six days. The court also sharply criticized her treatment in a related video circulated from detention<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tsarafi is charged with intentional murder and aggravated injury in the July killing of Razi, 19, in a Jerusalem apartment. Prosecutors assert that she and alleged accomplice Shilat Huta helped organize an attack carried out by four minors. All six are charged in the killing, and the criminal case<\/a> remains pending.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s ruling concerns Tsarafi\u2019s detention conditions rather than the charges against her, easing some of the restrictions imposed by the IPS, but does not restore her general access to telephone calls or determine who recorded or distributed the footage.<\/p>\n

Judge Gilad Hess wrote that the actions taken against Tsarafi appeared excessive, harmed her dignity, and lacked justification. The video displayed her handcuffed with her hands behind her back, bent forward while masked officers led her through the facility.<\/p>\n

Hess added that such handling of a female detainee should, where possible, not be carried out by male officers. However, he also said that this was a general assessment of the footage rather than a final ruling on all of the defense\u2019s allegations about the situation, which were not fully before the court in the prison petition.<\/p>\n

Footage shows Agam Tsarafi being physically led by officers of the Israel Prison Service, who also conducted searches of her room. (Section 27a)<\/p>\n

The immediate impact is that Tsarafi may not be held alone. The IPS may continue separating her from the general prison population, but she must be housed with at least one other detainee. Hess limited that arrangement to six additional days, through Thursday, rather than the 30 days sought by the service.<\/p>\n

The court<\/a> said the need for continued separation must then be reassessed if no new intelligence emerges. Tsarafi may petition again if the IPS extends the measure.<\/p>\n

Court largely sides with IPS on telephone access<\/p>\n

On telephone access, however, the court largely sided with the IPS. After reviewing classified material from the service and Israel Police, Hess said the restriction was based on reliable, corroborated intelligence and that even monitored calls could undermine its purpose.<\/p>\n

The general phone restriction remains in place. Tsarafi\u2019s lawyers may submit a specific request for a call, including with her parents, for the IPS to consider.<\/p>\n

Public defender Daniel Mirsky filed the petition on September 14, challenging Tsarafi\u2019s separation and restrictions on calls and visits. The dispute became urgent after the escort video circulated while the IPS still had several days to respond.<\/p>\n

The defense argued that the footage humiliated a detainee who has not been convicted and risked prejudicing her criminal trial. It also asked the court to identify who authorized its release and prevent further publication of material about her from inside IPS facilities.<\/p>\n

The IPS responded by telling the court that it had not published the video and that no authorized official had approved its release. It said the matter was being examined. Hess did not determine who filmed or distributed the footage, saying those questions would require a separate, properly filed proceeding.<\/p>\n

The service also argued that intelligence material justified the restrictions because of the risk Tsarafi allegedly posed to prison order and public safety. The court found the material sufficient to support the telephone ban and temporary separation but not solitary confinement or a 30-day period.<\/p>\n

Ben-Gvir defends IPS, says Tsarafi disrupted order, mistreated prisoners, staff<\/p>\n

\u201cPrison<\/a> officers are expected to respect themselves, the law, and Agam\u2019s presumption of innocence,\u201d the defense said after the ruling. It added that the question of Tsarafi\u2019s responsibility for Razi\u2019s death should be determined in court and criticized the professional standards displayed in the video as well as its distribution.<\/p>\n

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir had defended the IPS after the footage emerged, alleging that Tsarafi disrupted order and mistreated prisoners and staff and that her detention transfer was justified.<\/p>\n

The murder proceedings are continuing separately in the Jerusalem District Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tel Aviv District Court barred the Israel Prison Service (IPS) from holding 19-year-old Agam Tsarafi, a defendant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3194,737,85,46,838,110019,43,22359,116],"class_list":["post-624320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-court","tag-crime","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israel-prison-service","tag-judges","tag-news","tag-prison","tag-tel-aviv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}