The lawyer representing the mother suspected of neglecting her daughter: "The cause of death has not yet been ascertained" / Erez Harel
The mother of the 7-year-old girl who was neglected and died weighing 8 kilograms responded for the first time today (Wednesday) to the suspicions attributed to her and her husband at a hearing held at the Rishon LeZion Magistrate's Court. "The doctors told us everything was fine," said the girl's mother, who is now suspected of causing her death.
At the hearing, the detention of the girl's parents, a couple in their 30s living in a moshav in the Shfela, was extended by four days. The two were arrested this week after their child was rushed to Assaf Harofeh Hospital dead and with severe signs of neglect, including many lice on her head and face, neglected nails and extreme thinness to the point that her weight reached only eight kilograms. Her parents claim that the girl lost her life due to serious medical problems, including mental retardation and epilepsy.
"I was a devoted mother from the second she was born," the mother claimed at the hearing. "My husband and I were by her side all the time. When we were informed that she was sick, we reset ourselves and did everything we could to save her. For two years we had to fight so she could get the medication she needed because of her syndrome, mutations and weight loss problem. I was always in touch with her doctors. Every little thing I had a suspicion about, I went straight to the doctors to check it out."
She also expressed criticism of the medical treatment her child received. "We checked her shortness of breath and the doctor said it was nothing. The HMO didn't find out she had epilepsy when we went for a check-up, they just told us everything was fine. Everyone who knows me knows that I gave my soul and everything for my daughter. She was dear to us."
The scene of a rocket landing, Sderot, October 12, 2023/Reuven Castro
According to attorney Oren Sasson, two weeks before the girl's death, her parents had an appointment with a neurological doctor due to her serious medical condition and went with her many times for additional medical treatment. However, the judge noted that according to the medical documents taken by the police, the girl last received medical treatment about eight months ago.
In addition, the police representative claimed at the hearing that all the indications taken from the scene and the hospital raised the suspicion that the girl died as a result of neglect. "As those who were responsible for the child and naturally, suspicion falls on the parents. There are indications of acts and omissions related to her death."
Attorney Shai Roda, who represents the suspect father, argued that the investigating unit and the medical staff who concluded that the girl lost her life due to neglect were not exposed to her full complex and difficult medical condition. When he asked the police representative if they had the list of medications the girl had taken, he said no. "No one knows the cause of death yet," attorney Oren Sasson said at the hearing. "There is only speculation. She lost weight because she had a severe fungus in her body, she didn't eat or grow."
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The judge: "It is difficult to imagine a situation in which the deceased arrived in these figures and did not receive urgent medical treatment"
In order to exhaust the evidence in the investigation, the girl's body was taken to the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Abu Kabir. The results of the autopsy are expected to indicate whether the death was caused by genetic and health problems suffered by the girl, as the suspects claim, or as a result of severe neglect on the part of her parents, as the police believe. "The girl suffered for seven years, and these days she suffers when we can't bury her," said Shuki, a relative of the girl and the suspects' parents, painfully.
The family begged the court and police representatives to be able to bury the deceased girl and for the suspects' parents to be released only for the funeral, but the police representatives argued before Judge Tal Gabbay that they did not have the number of police officers required to escort the suspects to the funeral. "It's been five days and we haven't buried her yet. We feel terrible in the family," the family claimed. "The parents suffered for seven years, they suffered when she died and now they have to suffer and sit in detention. Yesterday, I went to give a statement to the police and a policeman told me that detainees wanted to beat my father in detention. He's poor."
The police investigators also claimed that they believe actions were taken to disrupt the investigation process. "I believe that under these circumstances it would have been appropriate if it had been parents who made sure to hospitalize the deceased long before she reached the state she reached," Justice Tal Gabbay said in the decision, noting that there are additional investigative actions that there is concern of disruption by coordinating versions. "It is hard to imagine a situation in which the deceased arrived in the data as presented now and did not receive urgent medical treatment. This conduct of the deceased's suspicious parents constitutes reasonable suspicion that the offenses attributed to them were committed."
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