The confessions made by 39-year-old Dimitry Kirilik of murdering six members of the Oshrenko family in their Rishon Lezion home last month should be inadmissible in court, the suspect's defense attorney told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, noting that the police and the Prisons Service had kept the suspect bound to his jail cell bed for several days in a row.
"My client was tied to his bed - both hands and feet were bound. I've not heard of any person being bound to their bed for such a long time. I don't know what caused police to do this, but I think the court will have to address these conditions," attorney Uri Keinan said.
Keinan said he was drawing a direct link between Kirilik's statements to police and the conditions in which he was being held.
Prisons Service spokesman Yaron Zamir said in response that "the suspect is considered to be an individual who requires supervision because he may harm himself, and he also poses a greater risk of injuring wardens. Therefore, he is bound."
According to Central Police District head Cmdr. Nissim Mor, Kirilik said during his interrogation, "I don't understand why you are so overwrought over the murder of an entire family. It's not such a big deal in Russia."
Police pointed out that Kirilik had spoken in fluent English during questioning, and quoted him as saying: "I'm one bad motherf*****."
During his interview with the Post, Keinan accused the police "of running my client's trial in the media," adding, "I am not going to be dragged by police into fighting a legal battle in the press. I will put forward my legal claims in court, and I am sure I will receive a fair hearing there."
Keinan claimed that the police had publicly built an entire case against Kirilik before case material was made available to him and before he could examine the police's evidence in detail.
"I won't receive the case material until an indictment is served," Keinan said. "This is the problem."
But a police source dismissed Keinan's charges, saying, "He seems to have forgotten that he was the one who demanded that the media gag order be lifted. He wanted to bring this out into the open."
The source also echoed Zamir's statement, saying that the conditions in which Kirilik was being held were justified in light of the risk he posed to himself and his environment.
Earlier on Tuesday, Dep.-Cmdr. Avi Noiman, head of the Central Police District's Central Unit, said that "there are no holes in our case," and that the confessions had been extracted from Kirilik legally.
Noiman added that the sole surviving member of the Oshrenko family, Yana Oshrenko, no longer required police guard. Officers from the Central District had provided her with intensive moral support, Noiman said, adding that he hoped she would be able to "make a new start."
