Honenu Attorney Rom; Photo credit: Honenu
Wednesday, July 31, 2024, 16:57 Honenu Attorneys Nati Rom and Adi Keidar, who are representing three of the soldiers from the Sde Teiman Military Base detained on suspicion of assaulting a Nukhba terrorist prisoner, revealed the soldier’s testimonies of the incident. Prior to a hearing on the appeal they filed against the extension of the soldiers’ remand, Attorney Rom leveled sharp criticism at the Military Advocate General’s office over their treatment of the soldiers: “They took the best of our soldiers who have been devoting their lives for many months in defense of Israel, at a task that nobody could do in their stead, against the worst of our enemies. Masked Israeli forces detained Israeli soldiers as if they were hardened criminals. They did not accept the soldiers’ testimony or attempt to question them. They simply detained all the soldiers who were present during the incident, including those who were outside of the immediate area. This behavior by the military authorities is unacceptable The disgrace will be remembered forever. The accused can be investigated and the truth ascertained without the aggressive methods employed by the Military Criminal Investigation Division (MCID).”
Honenu Attorney Keidar; Photo credit: Honenu
Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar added: “The MCID inexplicably invested vast resources to prove the outrageous claims of a despicable terrorist. The accused [the detained soldiers] are eight normative people who have families. I hope that the court will understand the situation and that the unnecessary detentions should be canceled immediately.”
Honenu Attorney Nati Rom detailed the soldiers’ testimony of the incident over which they were detained: “My clients were asked by the prison commander to conduct a search of the cell of a number of prisoners who arrived at the facility because they posed a potential danger. These prisoners are classified as violent and dangerous. During the search of one of the terrorists, he attacked them, and attempted to bite two soldiers and wrest a taser from one of them. [The soldiers] were forced to use force to restrain [the terrorist]. The soldiers did not strip the terrorist during the search. They used reasonable force commensurate with the situation. The difference between the fake news that the media published and what actually occurred is obvious. We reiterate that the prisoner is an arch-terrorist, a rapist, and a murderer.
“My clients deny all charges. Not one man would be willing to trade places with them in performing their duties. The Chief Military Advocate [Major-General Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi] would not last one week or even a day at the job with which they were tasked, that they carried out with dedication for long months, to protect all law-abiding citizens. If there is anything to investigate, it should be done respectfully. The testimony of a reprehensible terrorist should not be favored over the testimony of heroic soldiers.”
Honenu Attorney Nati Rom described the difficult emotional reaction of the soldiers’ families to the detentions: “None of the soldiers have criminal records. On October 7, they went out to defend Israel. One of my clients lost his father in a terror attack. He was detained on the anniversary of his father’s murder. His wife and children are distraught. The defamation will never be forgotten. On the day that my clients are released, everyone who had a part in their detention and mistreatment should apologize to them.”
At the appeal, Attorneys Rom and Keidar demanded immediate release of the soldiers.
Please click here for a statement from Hila, the wife of one of the soldiers detained at the Sde Teiman military base on suspicion of assaulting a Nukhba terrorist, who leveled sharp criticism at the Military Advocate General over his detention.
Yesterday, the court ignored the soldiers’ concerned families and held a hearing in their absence.
Initially, Honenu Attorneys Rom and Keidar were prevented on various pretexts from meeting with the detainees and granting them legal counsel.