Shin Bet Seeks Lenient Plea Deals for Hamas Operatives to Avoid Testifying About Torture Methods
Source: Haaretz
Security agency's plea-bargain stance put on hold by military prosecutor, who fears for state security, army sources say.
The Shin Bet security service is demanding that the military prosecution sign extremely lenient plea agreements with Palestinians accused of setting up Hamas infrastructure in the West Bank to avoid having its agents testify about the harsh interrogation methods they used, military sources have told Haaretz.
Last summer, parallel to the kidnapping of three teenagers in the West Bank, Shin Bet head Yoram Cohen informed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas about the Hamas network, which was organized by Saleh al-Arouri, a top operative working from Turkey.
The Shin Bet then arrested more than 93 suspected members of the network and filed dozens of indictments at the Ofer Military Court. It seized 30 weapons, including 24 rifles, seven rocket launchers and 600,000 shekels ($153,000). The Shin Bet interrogated 46 of the suspects.
But in recent months, as the cases reached the Ofer Military Court, the Shin Bet has been trying to get them closed as quickly as possible, at almost any price, to prevent its men from having to testify, military sources said.
This decision was linked to the events of June 2014, when the Shin Bet wrongly suspected that Arouri’s network, which it had come across the month before, was responsible for the kidnapping of Eyal Yifrah, Gilad Sher and Naftali Fraenkel, and as a result thought it could torture the suspects to obtain information. The assumption was that if the Shin Bet was ever challenged, it could legally defend its use of torture because it was aiming to “prevent immediate harm to life.”
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