Protocol from trial of Duma arson suspects distributed in synagogues
‘Jews Don’t Torture Jews’ organization hands out some 20,000 copies of confidential courtroom documents concerning July 2015 murder of three members of the Dawabsheh family in synagogues across Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem, ahead of court decision on submissibility of confessions extracted from defendants by Shin Bet.
Each of the distributed copies includes some 15 pages of courtroom protocols from the trial of the men charged with the murder of three members of the Dawabsheh family.
Court discussions in the affair have been held behind closed doors since charges were filed against the main suspect in the arson, Amiram Ben-Uliel, and another Jewish minor.
The documents were handed out by the Yehudi Lo Me’ane Yehudi (“Jews Don’t Torture Jews”) organization, which helps Hilltop Youth who are detained and investigated by the Shin Bet’s Jewish Division on suspicion of carrying out “price tag” activities against Arabs.
The courtroom protocol pages were distributed ahead of the Lod District Court’s decision on Tuesday regarding the submissibility of the culprits’ confessions in the affair. Their lawyers, on behalf of the Honenu legal aid organization, say the confessions were collected by means of torture. The culprits are waging an extensive legal battle against the Shin Bet investigators’ conduct in their interrogations.
The State Attorney’s Office offered the following response: “We would like to reiterate that the court has issued an order banning the publication of any detail pertaining to the identity of the minor and any detail related to the modi operandi and measures used by the General Security Service in the affair’s investigation. The discussions are held behind closed doors and their content must not be published.”
Reham and Saed Dawabsheh were critically hurt in a firebombing of their home on July 31, 2015. Their 18-month-old son, Ali, was killed on the spot. The father, Saed, succumbed to his wounds after several days in hospital, and his wife died about a month later. The couple’s other son, four-year-old Ahmed, was seriously wounded in the attack. He was hospitalized at the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer and underwent long treatments.
A security forces and Shin Bet investigation revealed that the arson was a Jewish terror attack, as the walls outside the houses were sprayed with the writings "Long live Messiah the king" and "Revenge” alongside a drawing of a Star of David.
Five minutes after the attack, the State Attorney’s Office filed indictments against two Jewish terrorists for the murder of the Dawabsheh family members and for being part of a terror organization. The motive, according to the State Attorney’s Office, was their desire to avenge the murder of Malachi Rosenfeld, who was shot to death in a terror attack near the settlement of Shvut Rachel in the Binyamin region.
