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Prosecutors announced Monday that they would drop lawsuits against two far-right Jewish activists that they had indicted for a series of crimes, including membership in an organization. terrorist and vandalism of a prominent church in Jerusalem.
The prosecution informed the Lod District Court that it did not have enough evidence to prosecute Eyal Reuveni, 23, and a second suspect, 21, whose name was banned from publication because he was minor at the time of the facts alleged against him. been charged.
The announcement comes a little over two months after the Lod District Court overturned the confessions given under extreme duress by the young suspect, a decision seen as a blow to the Shin Bet security services, which led l & # 39; investigation.
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Reacting to the announcement made Monday, the lawyer of the two suspects, Itamar Ben Gvir, said that it was the culmination, after three years, "of one of the most cases of the history of Israeli law ".
Ben Gvir is a candidate for the election of the Union of Right-wing parties as the second representative of the extremist Otzma Yehudit party. The lawyer said he hoped to continue to represent settlers and right-wing activists in the Knesset.
Yinon Reuveni (D) consults his lawyer, Itamar Ben Gvir, at his trial in the Nazareth District Court on July 29, 2015. (Basel Awidat / Flash90)
Reuveni and the young suspect were arrested in January 2016 as part of Shin Bet's wider crackdown on "terrorist infrastructure" behind the deadly Dawabsha family bombing in July 2015 in the Palestinian village of Duma. .
During his interrogation, the young suspect confessed to being a member of the terrorist organization, vandalizing the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem and burning several vehicles in the city of Aqraba in the north. of the West Bank. However, Ben Gvir claimed that these confessions were given following a complex exercise conducted by the Shin Bet and the Israeli police, during which the suspect was placed in a false prison in Acre for four days, threatened and harbaded by detectives being detainees.
In a report broadcast just days before the decision of the Lod District Court in January, the TV show "Uvda" published recordings of the exercise of information on the prison as well as subsequent interrogation of the activist, in which the false detainees could be heard, threatening him and preventing him from eating and sleeping in an effort to make him talk.
It was as a result of this exercise that the young suspect confessed to the multiple charges against him and involved Reuveni.
Judge Michal Brant said in January that "if the offenses were serious and the wrongs they caused to the public were serious, we must strike a balance between public safety and the preservation of its dignity."
Brant described the conduct of the investigators as "unfair, to say the least, offensive and threatening".
Saad and Riham Dawabsha, with baby Ali (screenshot of channel 2 screen)
"This created a situation in which the accused was under immense pressure and felt helpless … in which his younger age had more weight, as well as the fact that he was prevented all the while meeting a lawyer, "said the judge. I said.
This decision was the result of a preliminary motion submitted by Ben Gvir, who had requested that his client's confessions be rejected because of the circumstances in which they were made.
The main crime against Reuveni and his youngest accomplice took place in February 2015. Dormition Abbey officials discovered that parts of the seminary had been burnt, accompanied by hate slogans inspired by Hebrew hatred. . The messages included "death to Christians", "death to the Arabs" and "Jesus is a monkey".
The Dormition Abbey, located next to the Cenacle – a complex that Jews worship as the site of King David's Tomb and Christians as the room of the last supper – outside the Gate of Zion and the old city, has been the site of many graffiti in the last decade. In 2014, a few hours after the celebration of Mbad by Pope Francis at the Abbey, arsonists set fire to the enclosure, causing minor damage to its structure.
Abbey of the Dormition seen from the ramparts of the old city of Jerusalem (photo credit: Shmuel Bar-Am)
The minor whose confession was rejected was arrested for vandalism with two other suspects: Reuveni, who has since been sentenced to five and a half years in prison for the arson of July 2015 at the church of the Multiplication of breads and fish. in northern Israel; and another unidentified minor who was charged with accomplice in the terrorist attack on the Duma.
In June, the Lod District Court made a decision similar to that of Tuesday, renouncing several confessions made by the alleged accomplice who linked him to the attack on the Duma, because they had been extorted under extreme duress by the interrogators. The court subsequently agreed to release him and has since been under house arrest.
In his announcement on Monday, the Lod district prosecutor's office said his efforts to convict the Duma suspects continued.
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