Honenu Attorney to Knesset Minister: “No justification for sadistic torture in this case”

Wednesday, December 23, 2015, 12:31 On Tuesday, December 22, Honenu Attorney Adi Kedar wrote a scathing letter to Education Minister Naftali Bennett protesting the Minister’s support of the torture which the youths detained in the Kfar Duma case suffered at the hands of the GSS.
“I was astounded to hear in the news media about the complete support which you and your colleagues gave to the brutal violence used on the detainees under interrogation,” wrote Honenu Attorney Kedar.
“The GSS has not denied even once the claims which the suspects voiced concerning violence, but rather only presented the violence as having legal justification and the GSS as having the authority to carry out this violence,” stressed Kedar. “Sir. There is no authorization in the law to use any violence, certainly not with the force and sadistic torture used in this case. Furthermore, anyone with intelligence understands that acts of such a nature were not authorized and will not be authorized for use on any detainee interrogated, regardless of faith, race, or gender.”
Kedar referred to the descriptions of torture under interrogation he heard from the detainees who suffered, among other forms of torture, having their bodies stretched in the shape of a bow and blows to sensitive parts of the body. Additionally one of the detained minors tried to put an end to his suffering by slitting his wrists in a suicide attempt. He had told Judge Erez Nurieli that he could not stand the physical and emotional abuse any more and was willing to admit to whatever the interrogators asked: “They are accusing me of something, showing me names. They think I am connected [to the case], but I don’t know anything, and I can’t say names because I don’t know any, even if they kill me … Just so that they won’t hit me, I am willing to admit to anything,” said the youth.
“I heard and I saw first-hand accounts of what occurred in the interrogation rooms, unlike you, with all the respect due to you, whose information came from second and third-hand claims,” wrote Honenu Attorney Adi Kedar to Education Minister Naftali Bennett. “Under these circumstances we deemed it proper to turn to you in an expression of our disapproval of your premature and uninformed support [of the GSS conduct].”