District Court: Soldier to meet with attorney tomorrow

Tuesday, March 31, 21:26 2015 On the evening of Tuesday, March 31 Jerusalem District Court Judge Moshe Drori accepted Honenu’s appeal and ordered the GSS to allow the soldier detained on suspicion of leaking military information to residents of the Etzion Bloc region in which he serves in an intelligence position in the Etzion Territorial Brigade position to meet with an attorney the following day. (See here and here for more information.) The soldier, who was detained on March 10, has been interrogated for the past seven days by the GSS and was not permitted to meet with his attorney during that time. In an unusual deliberation which was held at the soldier’s bedside in the surgical department of the Bellinson Hospital, where he is recuperating from an emergency operation, a military court judge extended his remand until Sunday, April 5.
The soldier was rushed to Bellinson Hospital on the night of Monday, March 30 due to an urgent medical problem. His family was not permitted to accompany him and was not informed of the medical emergency until the following morning, even though he underwent an operation overnight.
“It is a sad fact that the interrogating authorities are using methods on an IDF soldier, methods which are generally reserved for the worst terrorists,” said Honenu attorney Adi Kedar, who is representing the soldier. “We warned the interrogating authorities about his [the soldier’s] medical condition from the first moment [of his detention]. Unfortunately the GSS and the army did not give sufficient attention to the matter. I am pleased that the [Jerusalem] District Court accepted our appeal and significantly shortened the duration of the order preventing my client from meeting with an attorney.”
“The IDF is stabbing a good soldier in the back,” said the soldier’s family. “It cannot be that a good, dedicated soldier who one day before his detention participated in the arrest of 17 terrorists, finds himself issued bizarre orders and stringent remand conditions. We are worried about his medical condition, which has deteriorated under interrogation, culminating in an emergency operation last night. It is an embarrassment that he had to undergo his operation without the knowledge and support of his family.”