Meir Ettinger, detained for eight months by an administrative order of Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon without indictment or proof of wrongdoing, sent an urgent request for intervention through his attorney to the Prison Authority, asking for the suspension of a prison guard named Sagi Cohen whom he claims has been abusing him for no known reason, Honenu legal aid society said in a statement Thursday. People in Ettinger’s circle are saying the abuse began on Monday, the day Ettinger’s firstborn son had his bris, which the courts would not permit Ettinger to attend.
According to Honenu, the first abuse was when Cohen refused to allow Ettinger to have his sanctioned phone call to his wife on the day of the bris. He followed this bit of nastiness with a trumped-up complaint against Ettinger, and then confiscated all the electronic equipment in his cell.
Attorney Sima Kochav sent an urgent request for an intervention to the Prison Authority, accusing Cohen of making up charges against her client and depriving him of his rightful privileges.
“My client has been a positive prisoner who fulfills all his duties, obeys the prison rules and follows orders,” Kochav wrote. “In addition may I note that for his good behavior my client has received a good and respectful treatment from the staff and officers in the prison.”
Kochav pointed out that Cohen’s abusive manner is an exception, and that for some unfathomable reason he has made it his mission to abuse Ettinger. She demanded that an an investigation be launched at once against the officer by the prison’s internal affairs unit. She recommended that until the complaint is reviewed the officer be suspended so that he won’t take his rage out on her client.
Kochav sent copies of her complaint to Lieutenant Ofra Klinger, chief of Israel Prison Service; Warden Asher Shriki, Southern District Commander; Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud); and to MK David Amsalem, Interior Committee chairman.