7 arrested for torturing IDF soldier

Angry over debt, suspects kidnap 26-year-old immigrant, and threaten to dump him in Gaza.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Police find body 248 88 (photo credit: Police [file])
Police find body 248 88
(photo credit: Police [file])
Seven Israelis were expected to have their remands extended in court on Wednesday after being arrested on suspicion of kidnapping an IDF soldier and torturing him for days, Army Radio reported. According to reports, the five men and two women beat the soldier, put out lit cigarettes on his body, sexually abused him and even threatened to hand him over to Palestinians. The suspects then let the soldier go, but only after he promised to return their money. The incident began following a meeting the soldier had with a girl that he was seeing. The girl claimed that the soldier had borrowed a large amount of money, but that he refused to pay her back. With the help of her relatives, she then hatched a plan to force the soldier to return the money. According to reports, the girl invited the soldier to her house for an intimate meeting. When he arrived, he was met by a number of large men, as well as the girl's mother. The soldier was then tied to a chair, and a belt was strapped around his throat. The group began to beat him with sticks, fists, and belts, and cut him with knives. After threatening to hand him over to the Palestinians, the men then covered his eyes and brought him to the beach in Ashdod. "They understood that the threat to take him to Gaza and to the Palestinians was a grave one, given that he was a soldier in uniform," Ch.-Supt. Dudu Boani, Head of the Intelligence Branch of the Shfela Subdistrict told Army Radio. Only after the gang threatened to bury the soldier alive did he agree to sign a document in which he vowed to return the money. The next day, the men arrived at the soldier's house, ransacked the place, and beat him again. They once again took the soldier to the beach and continued to beat him there. They also continually dunked his head in the water and sexually abused him. Finally, they brought the soldier back to Rishon Lezion and threw him into a street, where a bystander found him and called the police. The soldier is currently being treated in the hospital.