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Photo: Maysam Abu Alqian, who was beaten by off-duty Border Police outside the Tel Aviv supermarket where he worked, on Monday. Credit: Eliyahu Hershkovitz
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by Almog Ben Zikri and Yaniv Kubovich for Haaretz, May 23, 2016 2:36 PM

The Tel Aviv District Court released 19-year-old Maysam Abu Alqian, the supermarket worker who was viciously beaten by off-duty Border Policemen in Tel Aviv Sunday, to house arrest.

Abu Alqian, an Israeli Arab from the town Hura in the northern Negev, was brought to court in the middle of the night by authorities demanding his detention. Despite claims by police that the teen refused to identify himself and had attacked the police officers first, the court released him to his home with certain limitations.

For the past three months, Abu Alqian has worked in Tel Aviv at a supermarket and a Burger King branch, while living in an apartment in the city.

The incident occurred Sunday afternoon at the Super Yuda supermarket on Ibn Gabirol Street, near the Tel Aviv Municipality. Abu Alqian had gone outside when one of the Border Policemen, who was dressed in shorts, demanded that he identify himself. When the teen asked by what authority he was being asked to identify himself and refused to show his identity card – the officer began hitting him, witnesses said.

Witnesses said the three police officers first called in colleagues from their unit who were nearby, and they too began to attack Abu Alqian, hitting him even after he was on the ground and surrounded by a large number of police officers. A police car arrived and Abu Alqian was arrested on suspicions of attacking the police officers and taken to the Tel Aviv area police station.

On Monday, with bruises on his face and a black eye, Abu Alqian spoke about the incident. "I returned from a delivery for the supermarket. I put the cart near the entrance. I wanted to go inside but a man passed me and then came back. He and a young woman stopped me. He wasn't wearing a uniform. I told him, bring someone in uniform. He showed me an ID, but I didn't believe him. After that he brought more people and they started to shove and hit, I tried to defend myself from their blows.