Lawyer: Journalist accused of pouring hot oil on mom ‘convicted by press’

Sapir Nisani was arrested Friday after allegedly pouring a pot of boiling cooking oil onto her mother while she lay in her bedroom.

By BEN HARTMAN
Updated: MAY 3, 2016 03:09
Crime scene [illustrative] (photo credit: INGIMAGE)
Crime scene [illustrative]
(photo credit: INGIMAGE)
The attorney for Sapir Nisani, the 24-year-old journalist being held on possible attempted murder charges for throwing boiling cooking oil on her mother, said Monday his client has been convicted by the media without getting her day in court.
“Everyone is looking at this case as though it’s already been proven that she did it and are ignoring that just before being put under anesthesia her mother had said she doesn’t blame her [Sapir],” attorney Guy Ein-Tzvi said Monday in an interview with Army Radio.
“We’re talking about attempted murder, have you ever heard of someone trying to kill someone with boiling oil,” he asked.
Nisani was arrested Friday after allegedly pouring a pot of boiling cooking oil onto her mother while she lay in her bedroom. Nisani maintains it was an accident and that she spilled the oil after tripping on a robotic vacuum cleaner while carrying the pot into her mother’s room to get spices for a dish she was preparing.
“The mother keeps her spices in a closet in her bedroom.
First check the facts and afterwards reach conclusions about whether or not her version of events is insane,” Ein-Tzvi said, regarding the question of why she went into her mother’s room with the boiling oil.
During a remand hearing last week, prosecutors said they are weighing an attempted murder charge against Nisani because her mother had been critically wounded.
They also said a number of witnesses had attested to a history of tense and violent relations between Nisani and her mother, and also stated that Nisani suffers from serious emotional and mental distress.
Nisani, whose name was cleared for publication on Sunday, has refused a psychiatric evaluation suggested by her attorney.
Nisani has worked for Channel 10 and the Educational Channel, as well as a number of local media outlets in Israel.