Honenu Attorneys Rom (L) and Keidar (R); Photo credit: Honenu
Monday, July 29, 2024, 17:08 This afternoon, Honenu Attorneys Nati Rom and Adi Keidar arrived at the National Unit for Operational Investigations at the Beit Lid army base in response to a request by detained soldiers and their families for legal counsel before their interrogations. Since their arrival, the attorneys have been prevented on various pretexts from meeting with the detainees and granting them legal counsel. The soldiers were detained at the Sde Teiman army base in southern Israel on suspicion of assaulting Nukhba terrorists.
Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar: “For the past two hours we have been requesting permission to counsel the soldiers who turned to us after the scandalous interrogations and humiliating detention that they experienced. All of our requests have been refused. These events are completely under the direction of the Military Advocate General and will be remembered forever as a disgrace. This contemptuous conduct must cease. We demand that the relevant authorities quickly put an end to it.”
Prior to their arrival at the National Unit for Operational Investigations, both attorneys issued statements:
Honenu Attorney Nati Rom: “I am on my way to counsel a reserve soldier, from a bereaved family, who has served hundreds of days of reserve duty on the Sde Teiman army base with great dedication and under harsh conditions. I spoke to his wife now. She told me through tears about her husband’s detention, which was horrifying. There were no grounds to detain the soldiers, certainly not the way the detention was carried out. All of the soldiers should be immediately released.”
Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar: “As someone who was an army officer in the reserves for over 25 years, until recently, I find the events of today extremely embarrassing. Every day, I have been counseling our finest soldiers who left their families to serve their country at a time of war and found themselves in interrogation rooms being detained under dubious circumstances. Someone in the Military Advocate General has lost their senses. We will demand that the soldiers be released today.”