Description

Photos: Published by Haaretz
Some of the soldiers arrested appearing on trial at the Beit Lid court house, Sunday. Credit: Nir Keidar

Entrance to the military court house at Beit Lid Base in central Israel, last week. Credit: Moti Milrod

Israeli singer, Ariel Zilber, at demonstrations in support of soldiers suspected of abuse, outside the Beit Lid base, Sunday.Credit: Nir Keidar

Demonstrations in support of the reservists outside the Beit Lid base last week. Credit: Tomer Applebaum
____

An IDF court reviewed a request to extend the remand of eight suspects accused of severely abusing a Gaza detainee at a detention center for captured terrorists. During the hearing, the prosecution stated that evidence against five of the suspects had been significantly strengthened

by Bar Peleg for Haaretz
Aug 4, 2024

On Sunday, the IDF Beit Lid Military Court ruled to extend until Tuesday the detention of five of the soldiers suspected of abusing security detainees held that the Sde Teiman detention facility. The Military Prosecution announced that it no longer supports the detention of three of the suspects, who were released and summoned for further investigations.

The families of the soldiers were present in the courtroom during hearings, while demonstrations calling for their release were held outside. At the hearing, the military prosecutor said that suspicions against the five suspects have significantly strengthened throughout the investigation.

The eight suspects are reservists from the Force 100 Unit, and were tasked with guarding detainees at the Sde Teiman facility, who were captured during combat in Gaza and brought to the detention facility.

Five of the suspected soldiers are represented by the Military Advocate General and three other soldiers by lawyers from Israeli legal aid organization Honenu. On Sunday, the defense called for the Military Prosecutor to release the suspects and pursue the investigation into the allegations while they are not under arrest.

The soldiers, two of which are officers at the rank of Captain, and one at the rank of Major, are suspected of seriously abusing and sodomizing a Hamas company commander, who received a permanent detention order on suspicion of engaging in terrorism.

Investigators believe that the soldiers used an object to impact the terrorist's rectum and are suspected of beating him and breaking his ribs while they were masked. The acts are suspected to have been committed after the detainee was transferred to Sde Teiman from Ofer Prison in central Israel, where he allegedly led a revolt with 14 other detainees.

Last week, the defense argued that the terrorist's injuries occurred as a result of forceful action by the soldiers in an attempt to restrain him, after the prisoner attacked the soldiers during a search of the prisoner's cell.

At Sunday's hearing, the prosecution said that no decision has been made yet on how to proceed with the findings of the IDF's internal investigation. If it is deemed an operational investigation, the defense will not be permitted to engage in it.

The arguments presented at the hearing were sometimes incongruent with the information discovered by the investigator. In one instance, the prosecution said it was not aware of a claim that the prisoner arrived already injured from Ofer Prison, though the defense had argued this already last week.

In another, the defense said the prisoner resisted a search on his person by the soldiers, and instigated a riot. The investigator neither confirmed nor denied this, with Judge Lt. Col. Toby Hart adding that there is no objective finding on claims about riots.

Judge Hart said that not all the suspected soldiers participated in abusing the prisoner, but they were all a party to the "inner circle". The judge added, "It is prohibited to needlessly harm prisoners, however serious their crimes may be. That is what the law and IDF value demand, and in a country of laws, it is not possible to avoid investigating suspicions of this kind."

The defense claimed that soldiers used "reasonable force in accordance with the situation," in which soldiers tried to restrain him. The soldiers maintain that during the search, they never stripped the prisoner. Some soldiers also claimed that the prisoner may have originally been wounded during questioning by the Shin Bet security service, but the Military Court rejected the claim.

The eight soldiers were arrested last week at Sde Teiman along with two others from the unit, who were later released. Their arrest sparked protests by right-wing activists, who, with the encouragement of MKs and ministers, arrived en masse to the Sde Teiman base. Some protesters broke into the base, including MK Tzvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism), MK Nissim Vaturi (Likud), and Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu (Otzma Yehudit).

Later, they were transferred to the Beit Lid base in central Israel, where many protesters also gathered, some of whom broke into the base. No one has been arrested in the riots to date.

Last week, Haaretz reported that the prisoner was returned to detention at Sde Teiman following his discharge from the hospital, where he received medical attention for the injuries he sustained. Several reservists from the same unit as the eight charged are still serving at Sde Teiman detention facility.