What are release on bail and an alternative to detention?

Bail is a financial undertaking, yours or your guarantors', that is forfeited if you breach the conditions. Alongside the bail, conditions are set: appearing for questioning, a ban on leaving the country and surrender of passport, no contact with complainants and witnesses, staying away from a place, house arrest. A whole chapter of the law is devoted to this (Arrests Law, sections 42 to 48).

There are two stages. At the station, the duty officer may release on conditions instead of detaining, and a lawyer who is present is heard before the decision. In court, the judge must choose the alternative that restricts liberty the least (section 21(b)), both at an investigative-detention hearing and at a hearing on detention until the end of proceedings. An alternative does not appear by itself: it has to be presented.

What to prepare: an address for house arrest and who lives there, two guarantors with pay slips who are willing to supervise, a passport to deposit, a letter from an employer, medical certificates. Electronic monitoring is a further option the law recognises (section 22b).

Conditions can be changed. As time passes, the investigation progresses or circumstances change, you file a request for renewed review (section 52) to narrow or cancel the conditions. A lawyer builds the alternative, presents it at the hearing, and afterwards makes sure the conditions do not stay in place forever.

Source in law: Criminal Procedure (Enforcement Powers – Arrests) Law, 5756-1996, sections 21(b), 22b, 42 to 48 and 52