The court today (Sunday) sentenced the six terrorists who escaped from Gilboa prison in September last year.
The defendants - Zakaria Zbeidi, Yaakov Kadri, Muhammad Arida, Mahmoud Areda, Aham Kamami and Monadel Infiat - were sentenced to five years in prison, 8 months probation and a fine of NIS 5,000 each.
According to the indictment, the escaped prisoners are not charged with security offenses and terrorism - but only with escape from lawful custody.
The indictment alleges that at the end of 2020, Mahmoud Ardeh decided to dig a tunnel from the cell, in order to escape from the prison.
He approached Kadri, as Mamji and Infiat, and offered them to take part in the tunnel excavation, and through it escape from prison - and they agreed.
In March, Muhammad Arda, Mahmoud's cousin, also joined the escape plan.
From the end of 2020 until the day of the escape, the defendants who escaped dug a tunnel, the opening of which is under the cell shower.
They removed a marble slab under the sink, dug under it, and put the marble slab back in place daily to hide the excavation.
The terrorists carried out the excavation work on a daily basis, in shifts adjusted to the prison agenda to prevent the exposure of the escape plan, and while using improvised excavation tools.
In order to help the diggers carry out the escape plan, the defendants who assisted in the escape also took part in the excavation of the tunnel.
Some also sat in the cell and their job was to warn of the arrival of staff members, as well as to make sure that other prisoners did not enter the cell.
Some helped remove sandbags from the tunnel to allow diggers to exit the cell.
Towards the end of the tunnel excavation, cousins Mahmoud and Muhammad Arda and defendant Jaradat decided to approach Zakaria Zabeidi and offer him to escape from prison with them, so that Zabeidi would take advantage of his position and connections in the Palestinian Authority and ensure that after the escape the escaped prisoners receive defensive detention.
Zbeidi agreed to the escape plan, and applied to move to Division 2.
On September 5, Zbeidi moved to the cell, and on that day the excavation of the tunnel, which is about 30 meters long beyond the prison walls, was completed.
That night, the six defendants fled through the tunnel, equipped with change of clothes, food and radios, to monitor the progress of the search and the location of the security forces.
The escape of the prisoners was discovered about an hour and a half later, so extensive searches began to locate them.
The six fugitives arrived in the village of Na'ura, when Mahmoud Ardeh asked his brother to come with a vehicle to flee them to the Palestinian Authority.
Unbeknownst to them, they decided to split up into pairs to make it harder for them to locate.
Eventually, all six were caught.
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
If you found an error in the article, we'll be happy for you to share it with us
