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Hundreds protested opposite the Knesset Building: “Stop the Torture!”
Monday, June 27, 2022, 20:43 On the evening of Monday, June 27, opposite the Knesset Building in Jerusalem, hundreds of demonstrators protested the torture by GSS interrogators of the Ariel resident detained last week in the investigation of an attack on a group of children by rioting Arabs just outside of the city.
Religious Zionism Party Chairman MK Betzalel Smotrich, MK Itamar Ben Gvir, MK Ophir Sofer, MK Michal Woldiger, MK Simha Rothman, MK Avi Maoz, and social activists Meir Layosh and Yigal Malka were among the participants. The protestors demanded that the GSS immediately stop the torture of the detainee and transfer the investigation to the Israel Police.
This morning, the Knesset Health Committee, led by Chairwoman MK Idit Silman, convened for an urgent hearing on the physical and emotional condition of the Ariel detainee being interrogated by the GSS. The representatives of the government who were invited to the hearing boycotted it.
Honenu Attorney Keidar meets with Ariel detainee
Monday, June 27, 2022, 21:57 As a result of public pressure, Honenu’s efforts in the legal arena, and a stormy Knesset Health Committee hearing this morning (Monday) regarding the physical condition of the Ariel detainee and the torture he underwent in the GSS dungeons, a meeting between him and Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar was scheduled for 16:00 today, and Keidar did meet with him. For the first time since he was detained six days previously, the Ariel detainee met with his attorney.
Keidar met with him in the GSS facility where he is being held and heard his version of the Arab mob attack and the GSS interrogations, including a description of being dragged across the floor naked.
Keidar: “I was shocked by his physical and emotional condition. It turns out that all of his claims are true. An official complaint was taken from him by an interrogator and I very much hope that everything will be examined. Essentially, it seems that on the face of it, the incident should not have been investigated by the GSS. The incident was not a security incident in any way. It all started and ended with a mob of rioting Arabs, who turned out to be terrorists. Therefore we demand that the GSS interrogation be stopped immediately, and until then we will not give our full testimony.”
Yesterday (Sunday) Keidar filed a complaint with “Mivtan,” the department of the Justice Ministry authorized to investigate complaints by GSS interrogatees, citing testimony from the Ariel detainee that he had been humiliated and disgraced to the extreme extent that he was dragged naked for 200 meters as he urinated on himself. He was also interrogated on Shabbat. In a complaint filed several days previously, Keidar described the extremely harsh GSS interrogations that the Ariel detainee had undergone. He was interrogated four times in less than 24 hours, deprived of sleep, and refused medical treatment. The intensive interrogations lasted for hours, including all night.