Honenu says Shin Bet agreed to let lawyers see minors in Jewish terror case

Court ordered review of complaint against Shin Bet.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB
Updated: JANUARY 9, 2019 14:38
Settlers attack activist. (photo credit: Courtesy)
Settlers attack activist.
(photo credit: Courtesy)
The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) has agreed, according to the NGO Honenu, to let lawyers for the two recently arrested minors in the Jewish terrorism case speak to their clients on Tuesday at 10 a.m.
A statement on Monday by the right-wing legal aid organization Honenu said that it had dropped its appeals to the Lod District Court to meet with the two minors on Monday afternoon in light of the deal.
The Shin Bet refused to confirm Honenu’s report regarding the deal, although it did not deny that the minors might be permitted to meet their lawyers on Tuesday.
On Sunday, the Shin Bet announced that some of those arrested and questioned over the last week are suspects in the murder of Palestinian woman, Aysha Ravi.
Ravi, a mother of nine, was hit by rocks while being driven by her husband near the Tapuah Barrier in the West Bank and killed on October 12.
With her husband beside her, she was injured when the stones struck her head and was taken to the hospital where she later died.
From the beginning, there was testimony from the Palestinians that Jewish rock throwers were involved, but no one was caught until December 30.
The Shin Bet said that of those five Jews arrested, three on December 30 and two more this past Saturday, are also suspects of other Jewish terrorism offenses.
In addition, Honenu said on Monday that the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court had ordered the Justice Ministry’s unit for investigating complaints against the Shin Bet to probe a complaint of mistreatment from one of the minors.
Honenu described the complaints as being handcuffed nearly all day to a chair, being spat at and being driven into a meltdown by insufficient food and rest.
A spokesman for the Justice Ministry unit said that no complaint had been filed, although they heard about the issue in the media.
Separately on Monday, Honenu said that Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked met with families of the arrested minors to express sympathy, the families appreciated her gesture.
Shaked also previously called State Attorney Shai Nitzan to advocate for making sure the minors’ rights were not violated.
Nitzan made a public statement last week that while the minors’ rights would be protected “terror is terror is terror” and implied that the Shin Bet did not need to use kid gloves with Jewish suspects in a murder case. Meretz party leader Tamar Zandberg blasted Shaked for meeting with the family as an improper interference with law enforcement.
Later, Honenu held a press conference with parents of some of the minors.
The mother of “Y,” who was arrested on Saturday night, said that the Shin Bet had called her to ask for permission to give her son medicine.
She said she did not know what the medicine was for and what her son’s condition was.
Other parents declared they were worried about if their sons were being mistreated and were left in the dark about the accusations.
On Sunday, the Shin Bet responded to the allegations against it saying, “the Shin Bet has identified a continuous and active effort from interested parties to slander the organization...and to delegitimize its activities.”
The agency’s statement continued that this “attempt should be condemned and should not be assisted. Nothing should be done to weaken the Shin Bet from continuing its efforts to thwart terror in any form – Jewish or Palestinian. All of this...[is]...for the sake of national security.”
The Shin Bet said that all of its interrogations have followed the law, been supervised by the state prosecution and received court oversight.
Furthermore, it reminded the public that lawyers of the three arrested minors had twice asked the court to let them talk to their clients and that the court rejected both requests due to the severity of the allegations – at least until the Shin Bet relented on Saturday night.
It rejected all allegations of violating the suspects’ rights and said that it has prevented hundreds of terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria this past year, including ones by Jews.
In addition, the Shin Bet said that the minors had been detained separate from adults and had been provided with tefillin (prayer phylacteries), tallitot (prayer shawls) and kosher food throughout the probe.
The Shin Bet added that the minors had not filed any formal complaints to the prison doctors or to the courts about their treatment. It also distributed photos and a video of the burning of an Israeli flag and of writing “death to Zionists” and a Nazi symbol on an Israeli flag which it said were connected to some of the suspects in an effort to illustrate their ideology.