Demonstration of torture methods; Photo credit: Otzma Yehudit
Wednesday, September 16, 2020, 15:02 On Wednesday, September 16, the Central District Court in Lod imposed a 42-month prison sentence on the minor who was initially charged in the Kfar Duma arson case. The stiff sentence is based mainly on the opinion of the General Security Service which requested the stringency.
In the framework of a plea bargain, the minor was convicted of conspiring to commit a crime and of several price tag incidents. The court also ruled that he had been tortured during GSS interrogations in the Kfar Duma arson investigation and therefore invalidated the confessions extracted from him. The invalidation of the confessions led to the Attorney General’s office being forced to retract most of the charges against him and to reach a plea bargain agreement. After the plea bargain was agreed upon, the two sides continued legal proceedings to determine whether or not the minor was a member of a terror organization. In the end the court convicted the minor.
Attorney Tzion Amir and Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar represented the minor. Keidar: “In their sentencing the judges have completely rejected the claims of the State, including those concerning penalization. However, unfortunately the sentence has been completely influenced by information confidential to the GSS. This is a decision that will not stand.
“The judges wanted to impose a penalty of community service and only because of the confidential information, against which defense is impossible, did they decide that the minor was not worthy of leniency. This is a precedential decision which does not allow for claims to be made concerning the penalization. There is no way to contend with confidential information. This indicates that the General Security Service is involved with investigations, judging, sentencing and penalization. This cannot stand and must be stopped.
Since the July 2015 arson attack on the Dawabshe family’s house in Kfar Duma, Honenu has assisted many Jews accused of involvement with the crime. For a selection of posts describing Honenu Attorneys’ representation of defendants and GSS interrogatees, see here. To familiarize our readers with the case, Honenu has gathered – see here – various articles and short videos on the subject.