JERUSALEM (VINnews) — In 2015, nearly 8 years ago, a house in the Samarian village of Duma was torched. Two people, members of the Dawabshe clan, died in the flames and their son was seriously injured and died later.
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A short time later, the Shin Bet arrested Amiram Ben-Uliel and charged him with the murder. Ben Uliel initially denied all involvement but the Shin Bet claimed he knew details which would have placed him at the scene. After receiving authorization from the courts to use torture, the Shin Bet succeeded in extracting a confession from Ben Uliel under great duress. Normally such a confession would not be acceptable in court, but Ben Uliel also confessed a second time 36 hours after he was tortured (although he was standing opposite his torturers at the time) and this confession apparently satisfied judge Ruth Lorch, who sentenced him to life imprisonment for all three murders. On appeal, Lorch’s ruling was upheld in 2020.
These are the undisputed facts of the case, but the issue of whether Ben Uliel was wrongfully convicted continues to split the Israeli political establishment and may have spurred the drive for judicial reforms. Right-wing MKs and the public behind them are convinced that Ben Uliel did not receive the benefit of the doubt and have raised other questions about the torching besides the confession under duress.
The house which was torched was in the center of the village- an unnecessary and dangerous detour for a Jew who wished to do such an act. The testimonies from the village claimed that two people were seen, whereas the conviction says he acted alone. Witnesses said that there was a car, while the confession claims he came by foot. Neighbors claimed that the murderers went in to determine the death of their victims, an unlikely scenario if a Jew had entered the village. Moreover four other houses had already been torched due to a feud within the clan, and in all likelihood the fifth was also a continuation of that feud.
Recently, in a landmark reversal of a murder conviction, Roman Zadorov was released from jail and acquitted 17 years after three different courts had convicted him of murder. Ben Uliel has been treated even worse than terrorists, placed in solitary confinement for eight years. Currently there is a campaign to reopen his case (Israel’s high court has so far predictably refused) and to improve his conditions of imprisonment.
MK Limor Son Har-Melech, who visited Ben Uliel using her parliamentary rights, called him a “holy man…not a murderer” garnering widespread condemnation even from right-wing MKs and journalists, who have yet to accept the fact that he may not have even been the arsonist in the case. However one of the most prominent and most left-wing defense lawyers in Israel, Avigdor Feldman, investigated the case and is also convinced of Ben-Uliel’s innocence. It remains to be seen whether Feldman will be able to represent him in court or whether once again political expediency will prevent justice from being served for this unfortunate victim of the judicial system.
Confession under torture is not reliable testimony. Case should be thrown out based on that alone.
Sounds like the Israeli establishment was looking for a way to avoid finding the real criminal and made this guy their pariah.
Thank you for bringing this case to light. You need to shed more light on the conditions he’s living in. Complete isolation! For years!
Yosef Mendelevich and Jonathan Pollard are both among the people who, knowing the facts of the case and his imprisonment, are front and center calling for change. He’s being used as a “deterrent.” Not a proud day (8 years) for Israel.
Considering that clan fights and honor killings are a regular occurrence in the Arab world, the validity of the confession is even more difficult to verify. Perhaps in some extremist, youthful zeal, Ben Uliel claimed he was the perp. But the circumstances as outlined defy reality. A lone firebrand entering a den of serpents and pulling off such a fatal fire without being lynched there and then? Maybe in Hollywood.
“After receiving authorization from the courts to use torture,”
Wut??
This is horrendous . Anyoneveould confes to anything under the torture these evil people are capable of.
Israel is not a democracy, but a left wing fascist state. The judge who ordered the torture and the torturers themselves should be hung for their crimes.
It all depends on what the Shin Daled has planned.
The Zionist State is the epitome of anti-Judaism. But even if the idolaters ignore that, how do they ignore this?