Suspects indicted in poisoning of Ra'anana family

Three men, a Palestinian and two Israeli-Arabs, broke into a family home and poisoned drinks, indictment alleges.

By BEN HARTMAN
arrest 311 R (photo credit: REUTERS/Eric Gaillard )
arrest 311 R
(photo credit: REUTERS/Eric Gaillard )
Nearly a year after he allegedly tried to poison a Ra’anana family in a botched terror attack, a Palestinian from the West Bank was indicted in the Lod District Court on Wednesday
Adnan Otman Nas’ara, 46, faces charges of using a dangerous poison to cause bodily harm and endanger life, breaking and entering, and theft. He does not face any charges of attempted murder, even though at least three members of the Lerner family of Ra’anana were poisoned and fell ill.
Using a dangerous poison to cause bodily harm carries a sentence of 14 years, while for attempted murder he could be sentenced to 20 years in prison.
His alleged accomplice, Tirah resident Husam Abed al-Rahim, was indicted in the Kfar Saba Magistrate’s Court on charges of theft and breaking and entering. An additional resident of Tirah was also charged by the Kfar Saba Magistrate’s Court with conspiracy to commit a crime, breaking and entering, and theft for his alleged role in the break-in.
According to the indictment, on October 23rd of last year, the three defendants broke into the Lerner house in Ra'nanaa and stole valuables, before Nas’ara sprayed the chemical methomyl in the family’s drinking water, tea kettle, cupboard, and elsewhere.
Nas’ara and al-Rahim had both worked on renovations at the Lerner family’s building prior to the break-in.
When the Lerner family came home that day they found they had been the victims of a break-in and called police. The father Ayal, his wife and two children drank from poisoned refreshments in the refrigerator and quickly fell ill. A police officer called to the scene also drank the poisoned liquid and became sick.
Ayal Lerner spent a week in intensive care and his wife and two-year-old child as well as the police officer were hospitalized for a short period of time after the incident.
Police then launched an undercover investigation that led them in early August to Nas’ara’s village of Beit Furik in the West Bank and his alleged accomplices in Tirah. Since then their remands have been extended on several occasions, while a strict gag order kept the case out of the press until this week.
When the case was announced on Sunday, Detective Ilana Kosinovsky of the Kfar Saba Police said that Nas’ara told police "I did this because I hate Jews because they are Jews.”