The Justice Ministry said four Israels would be indicted “for involvement in a range of grave terrorist activities against Arabs and their property.”
Four defendants are expected to be indicted Sunday morning in connection with the ongoing investigation into the arson attack that killed three members of a Palestinian family in Duma, southeast of Nablus, in July.
The defendants’ identities are still under gag order, but the Justice Ministry said the four Israeli males, two of whom are minors, would be indicted “for involvement in a range of grave terrorist activities against Arabs and their property,” fueling speculation about how much of the indictments would relate specifically to the Duma attack and how much to other crimes.
Pre-indictment motions were presented in the Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday against two of the suspects in the arson attack on the Dawabsha family home that killed 18-monthold Ali and his parents, Sa’ad and Riham. One of the two suspects’ remand was extended.
Separately on Wednesday, Deputy Attorney-General Raz Nizri said claims that the Duma suspects were tortured during interrogations were “ridiculous and baseless.”
Nizri put forward his position in a letter responding to lawyer Adi Kedar of the Honenu NGO, who objected to a recent visit Nizri held with detained Duma suspects without Kedar present. Nizri rejected Kedar’s objections to a Saturday night visit, during which, Nizri said, he inspected the condition of the Duma suspects at the Shin Bet’s (Israel Security Agency’s) interrogation facility.
Early on Monday morning, Kedar accused Nizri of violating his clients’ rights by speaking with them without the presence of their counsel.
For weeks, there has been a public battle between supporters of the suspects and the Shin Bet over which interrogation tactics the agency is using and is allowed to use to extract information from the suspects and over denying the suspects the right to meet with their lawyer.
Nizri flat-out dismissed the objections as wrongheaded and misguided.
He doubled down on the Justice Ministry’s explanation of the visit, stating that he is an official inspector of Shin Bet and police facilities, and that in that role he has the authority to perform such inspections at any time.
Further, Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein ordered the visit.
Most important, Nizri said a full report of his visit would be sent to the Justice Ministry’s head of investigating complaints against the Shin Bet, who would review any problems.
Without going into more detail, Nizri added that the complaints he received from the detainees were far less serious than those being expressed publicly in their names.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post