Honenu Attorneys Rom (L) and Keidar (R); Photo credit: Honenu
Thursday, November 21, 2024, 11:50 In late July, ten combat soldiers from Unit 100 were detained at the Sde Teiman military base on suspicion of assaulting a Nukhba terrorist prisoner who took part in the massacre on Simhat Torah (October 7). Five of the soldiers have already been released unconditionally. Honenu Attorneys Adi Keidar, Moshe Poleski, and Nati Rom are representing some of the other five, who were released from remand in August after serving approximately one month of a two-month sentence in a military prison. The soldiers were placed under nighttime house arrest immediately upon their release from remand.
This morning (Thursday), at a hearing at the Beit Lid Military Court, the Military Advocate General requested a two-week extension of the nighttime house arrest to allow the investigators additional time to examine the possibility of indicting the soldiers. The court denied the request and released the soldiers from nighttime house arrest.
Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar welcomed the court’s decision: “We are pleased with the decision and hope that the military prosecution will carefully consider all of the arguments for dismissing the charges that we raised before them during the hearing before the Chief Military Advocate [Major-General Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi] and close the case.”
Prior to the decision, Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar leveled criticism at the Military Advocate General: “A short time ago, a hearing on a request by the Military Advocate General for a two-week extension of the restrictive conditions imposed on the soldiers in the Sde Teiman case concluded. This hearing followed a hearing that was conducted for the soldiers before the Chief Military Advocate. At the hearing [with the Chief Military Advocate] we presented arguments opposing an indictment of the soldiers, and we voiced a number of serious claims. We are demanding cancelation of the soldiers indictments. At the hearing today, we argued that the request by the Military Advocate General is completely invalid. Its purpose is symbolic and has absolutely no basis. There are no grounds for keeping these heroes in nighttime arrest. We hope that the court will accept our request.”
In light of the media leak in the case, the Beit Lid Military Court of Appeals ruled that, “The Military Advocate General is required to promptly reply to the question of how investigative material reached the news media, in light of the claims of possible damage to the integrity of the investigation.”
Attorney Rom wrote a letter to the Attorney General demanding that she order an investigation into the leak and put those responsible for it on trial. The Attorney General replied that she had transferred the handling of the investigation to the IDF.
Following the last house arrest extension, the Honenu Attorneys Rom and Keidar requested to receive the investigative material in the case from the military prosecution.
Please click here for a description by the detained Sde Teiman soldiers of the incident.
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.
On July 30, 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.