Suspects indicted in poisoning of Ra’anana family

One Palestinian, two Israel Arabs Suspected of attempted murder after allegedly poisoning Ra'anana family for nationalistic reasons.

By BEN HARTMAN
Police 311 (photo credit: Channel 2 [file])
Police 311
(photo credit: Channel 2 [file])
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.”