Demonstration of torture methods; Photo credit: Otzma Yehudit
Wednesday, April 28, 2021, 9:48 Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar, who is representing the minor who was tortured by interrogators during the investigation of the Kfar Duma arson case, informed the Supreme Court in writing that the defense is considering filing a request for a retrial in light of a recent episode of the Zeman Emet (Real Time) investigative journalism program. Journalist Gali Ginat revealed an undercover agent and his dramatic testimony about the GSS interrogation which the minor underwent during his detention. The undercover agent was a “medovev” (plural, “medovevim”), an agent whose purpose is to convince detainees, suspects, prisoners, and others, to talk and to trick them into – sometimes falsely – incriminating themselves.
Keidar wrote: “Regarding the [undercover agent], the State mentioned in paragraph 25 that the circumstances had justified themselves in “real time”. In this context, note that several days ago one of the medovevim revealed himself on the Zeman Emet (Real Time) program. The defense is attempting to locate him and is accordingly considering filing for a retrial, a matter which will arise during the trial and which is expounded upon in the document at hand.”
On a related topic, a deliberation was scheduled to be held on the appeal of the minor at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem today (Wednesday) at 9:00. Shortly before the deliberation was set to begin, the Attorney General’s office filed a request to postpone it due to medical concerns of the attorney scheduled to represent the office. Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar, who is representing the minor, was already at the courthouse at the time.
The Supreme Court was expected to judge the appeal filed by the minor against the stringency of the penalty imposed on him by the Central District Court in Lod and against his conviction of being a member of a terror organization, which was accepted after the evidentiary stage of this crime in the trial. Keidar intended to demand that the Supreme Court hand down a lenient penalty and also exonerate the minor from the crime of belonging to a terror organization.
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.