In the video: the president of the country refers to the custody case/photo: Photography: Avi Kaner, recorder: Uri Bozaglo / L.A.M.
Almost a year has passed since the State's Attorney, Amit Eisman, ordered the filing of additional indictments in the case of "the pimp in the jails" and still, as of today (Friday), the attorney's office has not filed them.
A hearing for the accused terrorist has not yet taken place either, but a senior official in the prosecutor's office says that in the next two weeks it will happen.
Then it is also expected that the one trial that has already started in his case, for indecent acts, will be renewed, and that too only thanks to the insistence of the former prison guards against a plea deal that the prosecutor's office wanted to close with him.
Now, in preparation for the filing of the indictment for the more serious crime of rape, which should be determined in a district court, Muhammad Atallah is recruiting a battery of lawyers.
The former jailers are furious.
The defense team that will represent Atallah does not understand what the commotion is about.
Gilboa Prison/Flash 90, no
"Shirley" (pseudonym), who complained against him for countless incidents of harassment, an indecent act and attempted rape, wondered.
"This is first of all a terrorist, a murderer with blood on his hands, who harassed and humiliated and raped many girls for at least five years," she shared, "We are in such a difficult time and how can you even think of protecting such a person who has desecrated the soul and body of so many Girls. I experienced it, other girls experienced it and there are spouses, husbands, children."
"I don't think at all that such a person should be represented. But if anything, then don't we deserve to know where the money comes from?" Shirley demands, "Who pays him? If the State of Israel would tell us then I could be much calmer. I don't want to That it will come from funds that I pay, and if it comes from the Palestinian Authority or a terrorist organization, it's even worse that we even allow it. After October 7th, something needs to change here. We need to change the way of thinking in this regard as well."
An offer not to be missed
Advance to the next generation of Tami4 water bars: smaller, smarter
To the full article
"Terrorist, murderer with blood on his hands", Muhammad Atallah/Official website, no
The case of "the pimp in the prisons" was exposed by Liran Levy on Channel 20. The investigation was conducted in the national unit for investigating prisons in Lahab 433. As of 2020, the criminal proceedings against Atallah are ongoing in the Magistrate's Court in Nazareth, and this is for committing indecent acts on three female prison guards, two of whom were able to testify And the trial was stopped because the custody case was reopened.
The judge is about to retire.
But in the meantime, after the conclusion of the additional investigation, the trial is supposed to resume, while it was decided to prosecute Atallah for the rape of a female guard and committing indecent acts in two more.
Meanwhile, today we are talking about six female prison guards who complained against him, five of them about many indecent acts he allegedly committed in them and one for four acts of rape.
In addition, the state attorney decided to prosecute the commander of Gilboa prison at the time and his intelligence officer.
Attorney Ramzi Katilat represents Muhammad Atallah in the proceedings at the Magistrate's Court in Nazareth. The new indictment against Atallah will be heard in the District Court in Nazareth, as mentioned, subject to a hearing. Those who will probably represent Atallah are the lawyers Haim Itzhaki and Yigal Dotan with or without Katilat. Itzhaki and Katilat Worked for many years in the office of attorney Avigdor Feldman, who also represents many defendants in security offenses.
Dotan worked for many years with attorney David Yiftah. "No indictments were filed, no hearing took place.
We did not receive investigative materials.
Representation has not been arranged, the question of the fee and who is financing it is still not relevant," said Attorney Itzhaki in response.
They probably represented Atallah.
Attorneys Haim Itzhaki and Yigal Dotan/Official website, no
A source in the field says that in such a case, the one who pays the fees is the family of the accused.
Contrary to speculation, he estimates that the amount for representation in the entire case "reaches at most six figures, maybe one hundred thousand shekels, in one hundred payments."
The source added that "the public defender's office would have paid no less, maybe even more."
Itzhaki himself said about his role as a defense attorney that "religion, nationality or the nature of the crime are not relevant to my role in the process. In criminal indictments, people are accused of ugly and illegal acts. My job is to defend a defendant against the claims of the state attorney's office. Period."
He adds: "As a defense attorney, quite a few of my clients are Arabs because in the State of Israel many indictments are filed against Arabs. It is clear to everyone that if no lawyer is found to represent them privately, the state will represent them."
"There were 24 hours of such harassment in the wing."
Gilboa Prison/Reuters
"Shirley", served for two years in her military service as a prison guard in Gilboa prison.
Today she is 28 years old and the events in question took place more than a decade ago, but left her with scars that are evident in a conversation with her even today.
"Today I work, but it's very difficult. I'm being treated by a psychologist and a psychiatrist with pills to be able to sleep," she said, "It's always with you, every touch of my body is like a flash. I think about it every two days. Mostly at night."
Shirley added and shared about the sexual harassment she experienced for two years from Allah.
"They were mostly physical. At first it was small touches. Then let's say, if I accompanied him to visits or to the doctor, then there would be all kinds of friction like that, as if by mistake, and it got worse," Shirley said, detailing one of the cases, "for example, we were in the manager's office "The wing, I was sitting next to him when the director of the wing was in front of us and he passed his hand over my inner thigh. I was mostly scared. He looked at me and had a very scary look in his eyes," she said.
Shirley added and emphasized that her case is not individual.
"You have twenty-four hours a day in the wing and such harassment and such obscene acts, if we assume it happens three times a day, then in simple calculation it is hundreds of such incidents," she said.
She also added that the issue of harassment was known throughout the prison, "There were girls who complained, but some, like me, didn't complain because I saw that nothing was being done about it."
"It was known that Attallah harasses girls. That he is a harasser."
Gilboa Prison/Flash 90, no
Towards the end of her military service, Shirley said, the harassment turned into attempted rape.
"He threatened me and said he would send me the family of the murderer of the Vogel family, he said he put a contract on me with money in the Palestinian Authority and that he would send me people," she shared, he bragged about a lot of personal details he knew about me, my sisters and the rest of my family.
It was inside the wing in a sort of entrance room to the guards' area.
This was his regular place.
He grabbed my hand and my shirt and where there were no cameras at the time, he tried to take the key so the guards couldn't get in. I don't know where I got these powers from, but I resisted and he couldn't rape me.
He did touch me in very sensitive and modest places."
Shirley said that those shocking events interrupted her dreams. "I had plans to stay in the Shin Bet. I really wanted to. My dream was to sign permanently and feel that I was contributing to the country. Little by little I realized that this was not a place at all For the girls, there is no listening ear there," she said, "the fact that people there knew, and not just the faculty, but at very high levels. I personally talked less about all this with the girls. But it was known there that Atallah harasses girls. That he is a troublemaker. Atallah is just waiting for someone Come. He had a very respectable place in the prison. He was the spokesman for Wing 5, which is the strongest wing in the prison and beyond that if he wanted something from another wing, for example Wing 1 of the Israeli Arabs, it would have happened. Everything he would have asked for would have happened. If he didn't want a certain warden because he 'didn't like it' then he would make transfers. He would simply control the prison. Having a shift commander or a prison commander was a shame."
More on the same topic:
Gilboa prison
sexual offenses
rape
pimp