“He Had No Bruises,” Lawyer in Harvard Assault Case Says of Israeli Victim

Plus, Biden unilaterally amends the Constitution

Elom Tettey-Tamaklo, a Harvard Divinity student from Ghana, is one of two Harvard students facing misdemeanor criminal charges of assault and battery and of interfering with the civil rights of an Israeli student on the Harvard Business School campus. Photo: Ira Stoll, The Editors

Ibrahim Bharmal, center, is one of two Harvard students facing criminal misdemeanor charges for what prosecutors say was assault and battery and a violation of the civil rights of an Israeli student on the Harvard Business School campus. Photo: Ira Stoll, The Editors

Lawyers for two Harvard students facing misdemeanor criminal charges of assault and battery and of interfering with the civil rights of a fellow student argued today that the charges should be dismissed, while a prosecutor in the case said she was working with the FBI and police to identify three other potential perpetrators.

The case involves what prosecutors say was an attack on Yoav Segev, an Israeli student who was walking from his dorm room to a class at Harvard and encountered an anti-Israel protest on the Harvard Business School campus. When Segev walked among the anti-Israel protesters participating in an October 18, 2023 “die in,” he was surrounded, smothered with keffiyehs, and forcibly escorted away, as recorded in a widely shared video of the event.

The video seemed at the top of Judge Stephen McClenon’s mind during the hearing this morning before a packed courtroom in the Brighton division of Boston Municipal Court.