The main suspect in the deadly firebombing of a Palestinian family’s home in the West Bank village of Duma said he was tortured during his interrogations and that is why he confessed.
Amiram Ben-Uliel, 21, of Jerusalem, was charged in January with three counts of murder. Three members of the Dawabshe family — an 18-month-old boy and his parents — were killed in the firebombing. Five-year-old Ahmed Dawabshe remains hospitalized.
Ben-Uliel said in a recording reported Feb. 21 on Israel’s Channel 2 that the torture included being beaten, handcuffed and made to sit in uncomfortable positions, as well as being forced against his religious convictions to listen to women sing on the radio. A female interrogator also sang to him and touched him, Ben-Uliel said in the recording.
The Shin Bet security service, which carried out the interrogation, denied that the confession was inappropriately obtained.
According to the indictment, Ben-Uliel admitted to planning and carrying out the Duma attack. He said it was in retaliation for the murder of Malachi Rosenfeld, 25, in June in a drive-by shooting by Palestinian attackers in the West Bank. — jta