I think it was in Tarqumya (checkpoint), now that I mention it, but I’m not 100% sure. There was Border Police stationed there at the time, and someone – they chased some vehicle that was suspicious or something like that, and caught two people inside it. They must have found some improvised weapon on them, or something made out of a pipe and ammunition, and it wasn’t clear what they had meant to do with it. So these guys were arrested and one of them was waiting there, and we came to search him before taking him into custody. They (Border Police) were waiting with him outside the base, for some reason. It was night-time and we came there to check him before the arrest with a doctor, and we also already took him in our ambulance to the detention facility. Also, he was an older guy, in his fifties, I guess. Also, first of all, he was really in pain and was lying on the road and it was really cold. And he was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and was lying on the road. I don’t know if they had told him to sit or lie on the road or not, but we – he was really in danger of hypothermia, the way he was. It was winter and he was wearing a light shirt and lying on the road, and we were all wearing thick coats, and the road was wet and all. So we came and put a blanket over him, something like that, until all the paperwork was done, filling out forms or whatever, so that we could take him away. And there were all kinds of Border Police guys there who couldn’t understand what we were doing and how come, like they were really in shock that we covered him with a blanket. I remember us checking him, the doctor checking him, he was really really in pain, literally choking from pain. He said his side hurt, the doctor felt the spot and saw ribs moving, some kind of fracture. It’s not that he was injured from fighting when he got arrested, he didn’t resist arrest, so my doctor’s obvious conclusion was that someone had kicked him. Someone had beat him up.

How do you know? It’s simply because technically, he may have already been driving the car with a fractured rib – but it's unlikely. Highly unlikely. If he was lying there with a fractured rib after being arrested healthy, then someone must have injured him since then. The injury was caused after he was arrested.

How do you know he didn’t resist his arrest by the Border Police?Simply from their description of the incident, that’s what I understood.

What kind of paperwork is involved? A form for taking a detainee to a detention cell?Yes, something like that. It’s a medical form that the doctor fills out. I remember waiting there for a long time until we could take the detainee, and I don’t know exactly what happened to make us wait there, I don’t remember any more, but we waited there for some time. Perhaps some problem came up, maybe they didn’t want our ambulance to be used for transporting him or something like that, because it’s supposed to be a vehicle for missions. I don’t know, one of those things, we were simply there for a long time.

What about the form, what has to be filled in?It’s this kind of form, is the detainee is fit for arrest. It’s like, the doctor is supposed to interview him to find out whether he uses any special medication, whether he’s diabetic, whether he’ll need more medical care in the next 24 hours. All kinds of things that are meant to determine whether this person is fit for arrest or needs to be hospitalized.

So what did you write in that report?That’s the point, the doctor filled out the form. I assume he wrote that the guy had to see a doctor, that he needed medical care, but I don’t know for sure.

Where did you take him from there?There was some camp with a pretty big detention cell.

So he ended up in detention?I think so, but maybe from there, I don’t know exactly what happened to him after that. I don’t know. From my acquaintance with the doctor, I’m sure he wrote down that fractured ribs were suspected and I assume he recommended getting him x-rayed or something, but I don’t know what happened next.

…Did you handle the detainee?I just helped him, we helped get him into the ambulance.

Did he have any bruises on his arms, his head?He was shackled, with plastic handcuffs. And I remember the Border Police guys – at first, we parked pretty far from where he was, and the Border Police told him – we had no problem moving closer to him with the car, and they made him walk towards us, and he just limped along the whole way, until we brought the ambulance closer to him. But they really couldn’t understand why we were doing that, that it might make it a bit easier for him or something. Or when we helped him climb into the ambulance, it was obvious that they couldn’t figure out what we were doing and why.