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 Amiram Ben Uliel, click here, and for a selection of posts about other defendants and GSS interrogees, click here. To familiarize our readers with the case, Honenu has gathered – click here – various articles and short videos on the subject.
Tuesday, December 20, 2022, 7:48 Amiram Ben Uliel, who was convicted of murdering three members of the Dawabshe family in Kfar Duma in 2015, is suing the GSS for 5,000,000 NIS in compensation for the torture he suffered under interrogation and the subsequent emotional damage caused to him. Honenu Attorney Menashe Yado filed the suit on his behalf yesterday (Monday).
After the suit was filed, Yado stated, “The decision to interrogate Amiram under physical torture blatantly overstepped the protective measures that the law grants to interogatees. This suit comes to rectify the injustice done to Amiram, and thereby to correctly delineate the prohibition of torturing interrogatees by the GSS.”
In the statement of claim, Yado described how the GSS tortured Ben Uliel to extract a confession from him for committing the arson attack in Duma. Yado noted that until an explicit decision is made to allow the publication of the severe physical torture methods that Ben Uliel underwent, they will not be publicized. At this stage, the harsh treatment of Ben Uliel that preceded the torture may be publicized: “The claimant underwent degradation, prolonged handcuffing unjustified by law, cold showers, a winter night without a jacket, violation of his religious sensibilities by being forced to listen to women singing for prolonged periods of time and by being intentionally touched by a woman, threats from medovevim*, and violence and threats from medovevim who used obscene language. The torture caused great damage to the claimant, to his body, to his sensibilities, to his right to his body, to his autonomy, to his right to remain silent under interrogation, and to his right to choose how to form his life without coercion.”
(*Medovevim: agents whose purpose is to convince detainees, suspects, prisoners, and others, to talk and to trick them into – sometimes falsely – incriminating themselves.)
Yado further detailed the damages caused to Ben Uliel by the torture: “As a result of the torture, the claimant was coerced into giving incriminating testimony, which he has denied ever since. This testimony is the only basis for convicting the claimant and sentencing him to multiple life sentences. The torture has caused him significant emotional injury from which he suffers to this day.”