The State is planning to issue a Prosecutor’s statement on Wednesday, telling the court it is about to indict two key suspects in the Duma village arson murder case, 0404 News reported Tuesday. The purpose of the intent statement is to request another remand for the suspects, since their release could jeopardize the investigation which is about to yield real charges.
The state tried the same approach for another detainee this week, but after two rounds in the courts was forced to let him out to house arrest pending charges. In the new move, however, the state prosecutor is not digging up ancient charges against the two suspects in question but what they claim are the suspects’ full confessions to the murders—albeit under severe physical interrogations that included sleep deprivation and beatings.
With those confessions filed away in their proverbial desk drawers, Police and Shabak appear confident that this time they have sufficient evidence, and indictments will be coming down the pike.
Attorneys for the suspects Itamar Ben-Gvir and the Honenu legal aid society, plan to make the means by which the confessions were gotten the topic of the trial, rather than their content. The lawyers and the suspects’ families have been arguing for days now that the suspects confessed to things they had not done simply to escape more torture.
Deputy Attorney General Raz Nizri earlier this week visited the suspects in the Shabak facility where they are being held, and questioned them about the treatment they received. The prosecution might find it necessary to get the torture issue out of the way before the actual trial begins, to avoid letting the defense take the initiative on the validity of the confessions.