Is Mahmud Katusa, the resident from Dir Qadis accused of assaulting a 7-year-old chareidi girl from the school he works in as a janitor the real attacker?

According to a report released by Chareidim10 News, there are many questions surrounding the case that must be addressed.

The story surrounding the brutal abduction and attack against a 7-year-old girl from a chareidi school in the Binyamin district of Shomron, an attack allegedly perpetrated by Mahmud Katusa, 46, from Dir Qadis, has elicited an uproar from all sectors of Israeli society.

However, according to a Chaeidim10 News report, Yitzchak, not his real name, a resident of the village where the attack occurred, explains, “I was at police and in court several times” in the past and even employed the suspect, Katusha, in his home, and there are many questions surrounding the police’s handling of the investigation. The primary and worrisome question is if police have the correct man in custody, or perhaps, the true attacker is still at large?

“The Arab worked in my home and I know him well and respect him. On the other hand, if he did do it, he should be severely punished” begins Yitzchak, adding, “However, something is wrong. Police in the beginning believed the attack occurred in his Dir Qadis home. They turned the house upside down seeking evidence.

“Every Arab entering the Jewish yishuv is checked by police and the army but that is not why I am saying this, but simply because this does not jibe with the findings of the police investigation.

“At a certain stage, a Jewish acquaintance of Mahmud Katusha came to the police from the Jewish settlement and said: ‘On the day you suspect that the act was committed, he was in the home of a teacher from the school’. The police said: If so, this is the arena in which the grave act took place.

“Now, notice that it is 1:00PM in the afternoon, an elderly Arab takes a chareidi girl from a school, a 12-minute walk down a busy street, to a house where the act is alleged to have taken place. The girl objects, he drags her by force, and according to the indictment, she cries, and is brought into the house – and no one sees anything. Anyone who knows the community knows that this is unrealistic”.

Incidentally, Katusha does not have a vehicle. The Arabs have no way of bringing vehicles into the Jewish settlement, and the workers enter only by foot. Moreover, the indictment and the testimony of the girl do not indicate that the story involved a vehicle.

Here comes another question mark.

Yitzhak: “On the date the investigators suspect that the incident occurred, Mahmud did renovations for a teacher, and the teacher testified that from 10:00AM to 3;00PM, he did work for her while she was at home, and her children were with her.

“The teacher, in fact, is his alibi. The school principal was also at police for questioning, and begged to have him released, insisting he is not capable of such an act, that it could not be him. The entire school is fully networked with security cameras. No camera had documented that he had given her a candy as is reported to have occured.

“The police received an explosion when the teacher disproved everything they thought, providing an alibi for the suspect. Police reportedly changed the date [of the attack] and the military judge asked them: ‘How did you get another date?’ and police responded, ‘We were wrong’. Indeed, the indictment states: ‘Between February and April 2019 or at a time close to that.

What, the mother does not know the direction of a week, when it took place? Is such an occurrence so vague? A girl comes home hysterical from the horror she has gone through and goes to sleep without telling anything? She remains like this for a few days. And the mother, who finds the stained garment; she too is not afraid? Does one not go the HMO or the emergency room? ”

Yitzhak stresses: “The indictment was filed because, according to the polygraph they carried out, he lied, but this in itself is not valid in order to accuse him.”

In addition, as revealed by the evening News12, two days after the girl gave her testimony of the traumatic act she experienced, she spoke to a schoolteacher and told her about the incident. Revealing the horror, she pointed to the defendant, who was standing in the school yard and told her that he was the man who assaulted her.

“Beyond that there is no documentation,” says Yitzhak. “There is no forensic evidence in the case.”

“This Arab is also law-abiding,” he adds.

“He has no criminal record. He gets a very high salary. He was once a teacher at an Arab school. He is the one who brings others who work under him, and he warns his workers to adhere to the rules. He’s the one who’s careful.”

The girl’s family is a respectable family, living in the center of the settlement. The complaint to the police was filed only two weeks after the incident, after the family consulted with rabbonim.

“Another thing is not understood,” continues Yitzhak. “The 7-year-old girl came home after such a case, where Arabs held her and pinched her and abused her, as it appears in the indictment, and nobody knows at home? You do not see anything suspicious with this? After such a mad campaign of horrors, she comes home leisurely and just goes to sleep?”

Only after a week and a half later, the child begins to tell about the terrible incident.

What was the result of the girl’s examination in the hospital?

“The mother agreed to only permit a family doctor to check her. What can he discover a week and a half after [the incident]? ”

According to Yitzchak, the girl was attacked, “but whoever did it – it is not this Arab. Those who accept the police file and the indictment,” he says, “will see a document full of contradictions and illogical things that happened here in the community.”

So, what really happened here?

“There is a situation in which someone who attacked her told the girl to say what they did to her, he told her a story which she is repeating. Maybe it’s another Arab, maybe a neighbor, maybe a delinquent person in the area, while the police seem to be of the belief, he is the easiest target for blame, to throw it the Arab. And that’s what’s most frightening, if this is what occurred, then the real attacker remains at large.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)