By YONAH JEREMY BOBUpdated: DECEMBER 21, 2020 21:14Amiram Ben-Uliel appears at Lod District Court ahead of his conviction in the Duma arson case, May 18, 2020(photo credit: YONAH JEREMY BOB)
The minor connected to the Duma Jewish terrorism case entered Ayalon Prison on Monday to serve the remaining 10 months of a 42-month sentence.In September, the Lod District Court sentenced the minor as part of a plea bargain in which he confessed to a background narrative of admitting to participating in planning some kind of attack on Duma, including surveillance of that village specifically.He also confessed to unrelated arson and physical attacks, but the prosecution and the defense had not agreed on the sentence.In the end, only Amiram Ben-Uliel participated in the actual 2015 arson terrorist murders of multiple members of the Palestinian Dawabshe family, which led to multiple life sentences.The prosecution had sought a five-and-a-half-year jail sentence. But it was mostly satisfied with a significant jail sentence.Speaking to the press before entering prison, the minor said he was “voluntarily” entering prison now, even though he had a pending appeal to the Supreme Court.He said he hoped that in the coming months the Supreme Court would reduce his sentence, but in any case, he wanted to serve his time so that he could then move on with his life.The defense had hoped that the extensive time the minor spent in detention pretrial, as well as the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) enhanced interrogation (alleged torture) he was exposed to, would lead to him being sentenced merely to time served.Defense lawyers Zion Amir and Adi Keidar had vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court, saying the Lod District Court had wrongly allowed itself to be swayed by secret Shin Bet evidence that should be used only for convictions and not at the sentencing stage.A social worker had shown sympathy for the minor and supported a more lenient sentence.In May 2019, the minor cut a plea-bargain deal that led to a conviction on reduced charges.The minor was spared from being convicted of murdering the Dawabshe family in the 2015 arson incident and was not convicted of conspiracy to commit murder.On the other hand, he did confess to his involvement in surveillance.Why the minor did not participate in the actual attack, having told Ben-Uliel that he would, has never been cleared up. There is speculation he overslept when he was due to meet Ben-Uliel.The court’s decision came after weighing these issues, as well as that it disapproved of how the Shin Bet treated the minor. It signaled disapproval by its disqualification of his confession to additional charges of conspiracy to commit murder.
