Nearly a year after he allegedly tried to poison a Ra’anana family in a botched
terror attack, a Palestinian from the West Bank was indicted in the Lod District
Court on Wednesday.
Adnan Otman Nas’ara, 46, faces charges of using a
dangerous poison to cause bodily harm and endanger life, breaking and entering,
and theft. He does not face any charges of attempted murder, even though at
least three members of the Lerner family of Ra’anana were poisoned and fell
ill.
Using a dangerous poison to cause bodily harm carries a sentence of
14 years, while under attempted murder he could be sentenced to 20 years in
prison.
His alleged accomplice, Tira resident Husam Abed al- Rahim, was
indicted in the Kfar Saba Magistrate’s Court on charges of theft and breaking
and entering.
Another Tira resident was also charged by the Kfar Saba
court with conspiracy to commit a crime, breaking and entering, and theft for
his alleged role in the breakin.
According to the indictment, on October
23 of last year, the three defendants broke into the Lerner house in Ra’anana
and stole valuables, before Nas’ara sprayed the chemical methomyl in the
family’s drinking water, tea kettle, cupboard and elsewhere.
Nas’ara and
Rahim had both worked on renovations at the Lerner family’s building prior to
the break-in.
When the Lerner family came home that day they found they
had been the victims of a break-in and called police. The father, Ayal, his wife
and two children drank from poisoned beverages in the refrigerator and quickly
fell ill. A police officer called to the scene also drank the poisoned liquid
and became sick.
Ayal Lerner spent a week in intensive care, and his wife
and two-year-old child as well as the police officer were hospitalized for a
short time.
Police then launched an undercover investigation that led
them in early August to Nas’ara’s village of Beit Furik in the West Bank and to
his alleged accomplices in Tira.
Their remands have since been extended
on several occasions, while a strict gag order kept the case out of the press
until this week.
When the case was announced on Sunday, Detective Ilana
Kosinovsky of Kfar Saba said that Nas’ara told police, “I did this because I
hate Jews – because they are Jews.”