Indictments Filed Sunday in Duma Case

Indictments were filed Sunday morning against several of the suspects in the Duma arson case. Two suspects – a teenager and a youth under 13 years of age – have been charged, with the teen charged with murder, and the youth assisting in the act.

Two other youths are being charged with knowledge of the crime and/or helping to suppress evidence in the case, sources in the prosecutor’s office said.

The two are being charged with setting fire to the home of the Dawabshe family in the village of Duma last summer, when two houses in the Arab village went up in flames after being firebombed by masked attackers, whom the Shabak believes to be Jews. In one house, an 18-month-old baby was burned to death, while his parents died of their injuries later. The Shabak has been looking for suspects in the case since then, concentrating on its theory that the arson was carried out by Jewish radicals.

The suspects have been in custody for some 40 days, under what their attorneys claim are very harsh circumstances. The attorneys accused the Shabak, which has been conducting the investigation, of beating the suspects, as well as denying them sleep and even the opportunity to daven. The suspects, according to family members, were permitted only last week to meet with their attorneys.

According to attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is representing one of the defendants, the youths that he met with last week were in “shocking” condition, and were “broken physically and spiritually, and need mental help. The Shabak interrogators indeed ‘broke’ them, in every understanding of the term.”