The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court ordered the immediate release of settler Tal Yinon Dardik on Tuesday, finding insufficient grounds to keep him detained over charges that he violated an earlier military restriction order.
Judge Amir Shaked released Dardik without imposing additional conditions through the criminal proceeding. He stressed, however, that Dardik remains subject to a separate military order issued on Monday that bars him from nearly all of the West Bank and requires him to report regularly to police.
The ruling therefore ends Dardik’s detention but does not allow him to return freely to the West Bank or invalidate the security establishment’s assessment that restrictions against him are warranted.
Dardik is suspected of involvement in attacks against Palestinians and other nationalist-motivated offenses, including a March raid in which a Palestinian man was allegedly subjected to severe physical and sexual abuse. Dardik denies involvement, and he has not been charged over those allegations.
Security authorities said intelligence connected him to illegal and violent activity that endangered lives and property. A military appeals committee and the Jerusalem District Court subsequently found that the intelligence justified substantial restrictions and that the original decision to issue an administrative order against him was reasonable and proportionate.
Charged with six counts of violating a lawful order
The criminal case that led to his detention is narrower: Dardik was charged with six counts of violating a lawful order and one count of obstructing a police officer after authorities said he failed to remain at his mother-in-law’s home in the Adei Ad settlement, as required by an order signed by Central Command chief Maj.-Gen. Avi Bluth on June 9.
His mother-in-law, however, had not agreed to house him.
A military appeals committee ruled that Bluth could not compel a third party to accommodate Dardik against her wishes and canceled that part of the order. The Jerusalem District Court upheld the committee’s decision on Sunday, while leaving intact its finding that Dardik posed a real danger to security in the area.
Bluth subsequently revised the order, replacing the house-arrest requirement with a ban from the West Bank, except for Modi’in Illit. Dardik must report to a police station there twice a day. The military said the revised order will expire on the same date as the original and is an amendment rather than a new order.
Police prosecutors agreed that Dardik should be released but asked the Magistrate’s Court to make his release conditional on compliance with the revised military restrictions.
Shaked rejected that request, ruling that the new order could not supply grounds for detention in a criminal case concerning alleged violations of the previous one.
The cancellation of the requirement that Dardik stay at his mother-in-law’s home had significantly weakened the evidence supporting the charges against him, Shaked said. He found no sufficient evidentiary basis to keep Dardik detained until the conclusion of the proceedings.
The judge also criticized prosecutors for attempting to combine the criminal case with the separate administrative process. A court could not keep Dardik behind bars to prevent a possible future violation of an order issued only while he was already detained, he ruled.
Shaked denied the prosecution’s request to delay Dardik’s release to allow time for an appeal, saying such a delay would effectively prolong his detention despite the state itself having requested his release.
Dardik told the court that the revised order had been read to him and that he was aware of its terms.
Honenu, the legal aid organization representing him, said Dardik had conducted a 38-day hunger strike during his detention. That figure and the details of the strike were supplied by the organization.
Honenu described the ruling as a victory and called for the cancellation of administrative detention orders against other Jewish settlers.
“We are pleased that the defense’s arguments from the outset were accepted,” attorney Nati Rom said. “There was no violation and no justification for his detention.”
Attorney Moshe Polsky accused the state of dragging Dardik through unnecessary proceedings, while Honenu called the use of administrative detention against settlers a “black flag” and urged Bluth to cancel them.