A 17-year old Israeli Arab who alerted police to a suicide bomber by using the bomber’s own cell phone has been awarded a certificate of honor.

As Mahmid lay unconscious in his hospital bed, and despite his severe injuries, police suspected him of being an accomplice to the suicide bomber. Mahmid was handcuffed to the bed, and when he regained consciousness, he was interrogated by the police and Shin Bet agents. Only when Mahmid’s version of the event was confirmed did police realize that the suspected terrorist was actually a hero.

“I saw a suspicious man, wearing a brown shirt and holding a black bag,” Mahmid said, recalling his actions last week. “I was standing next to him [at the bus stop] and we started to talk [in Arabic]. I asked him where he was from and where he was going. He said he was from a village near Jenin and was traveling to Afula. He looked to me suspicious, and I asked to borrow his mobile phone. He gave me the phone and asked who I was calling. I told him I was calling a contractor in Tiberias, but instead I called the police and told them there was someone suspicious standing at the bus stop.”

But family members who were treated with suspicion at first are complaining. They were “humiliated.”

Mahmid’s family has harsh complaints against how they were treated by the police guarding the injured teenager as he lay unconscious in the hospital, Yediot Aharonot reported. “They regarded us as collaborators with suicide bombers, and quickly blamed us,” said Mohammed Mahmid, Mahmid’s father. “They humiliated us and treated my son as if he was the terrorist.”