Harvard Grad Students Plead Not Guilty of Assault at Protest, Say HUPD Bias Prompted Charges

Lawyers for two pro-Palestine Harvard graduate students charged with assaulting an Israeli student motioned to dismiss the case at an arraignment hearing on Friday, alleging that the charges stemmed from racially-biased policing by the Harvard University Police Department.

Ibrahim I. Bharmal — a student jointly enrolled at Harvard Law School and Harvard Kennedy School — and Harvard Divinity School student Elom Tettey-Tamaklo pleaded not guilty to charges of assault and battery at the hearing, which was held more than a year after they were captured on video in an altercation with the Israeli student at an October 2023 protest at Harvard Business School.

In the video, which garnered national attention, Tettey Tamaklo and Bharmal can be seen approaching Yoav Segev, the Israeli student, who was filming the protest. They blocked Segev’s camera with keffiyehs and security vests while escorting him out of the protest.

Segev, a student at the Business School, can be heard on the video saying “don’t touch me” as he comes into contact with the protesters.

In a police report filed in May, more than half a year after the protest, HUPD officers wrote that Segev was battered by protesters who “got so close to him that they contacted him with their torsos.” Though Segev told officers that he was hit by “many individuals,” he said that Tettey-Tamaklo, Bharmal, and another individual who could not be identified were the “most prolific and aggressive.”

But in the motion to dismiss, Monica Shah, the defendants’ attorney, said that Tettey-Tamaklo — who is Black — and Bharmal — who is of South Asian descent — were targeted by HUPD on account of their race, arguing that the case was tainted by racial bias.

“There were numerous white individuals on the scene engaging in the same conduct,” Shah said at the hearing, according to the Boston Globe.

Shah also said she plans to file another dismissal motion due to lack of probable cause that the defendants committed a crime.

Tettey-Tamaklo and Bharmal did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Harvard spokesperson also did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Friday night.

The case is atypical for both its length — though arraignments usually take place days after criminal charges are filed, this one was postponed three times — and for the political valence it has taken on as Harvard attempts to defend itself against allegations of harboring antisemitism on its campus.

After the video of the protest circulated, prompting backlash from prominent alumni and donors, Tettey-Tamaklo was removed from his role as a freshman proctor by Harvard College. In May, Rep. Elise M. Stefanik ’06 (R-N.Y.) alleged that Harvard botched its investigation into the incident and delayed “justice” for Segev.

And after the arraignment was delayed a second time, as prosecutors from the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said that HUPD needed to provide more information about the incident, Steafnik and Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) accused the University of “willfully obstructing” the case.

Former Harvard President Claudine Gay’s response to the incident was also featured heavily in a report released last month by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which accused Harvard of failing to protect Jewish students or discipline pro-Palestine protesters.

Tettey-Tamaklo and Bharmal were released with an order to stay away from the alleged victim. The hearing on the motions to dismiss are scheduled for January.

—Staff writer Asher J. Montgomery can be reached at asher.montgomery@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @asherjmont or on Threads @asher_montgomery.