Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court Justice Yoram Noam ruled that the State of Israel, Professor Yehuda Hiss in his capacity as chief pathologist at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute and two other physicians must pay NIS 2 million in damages to the parents of an IDF soldier. The gag order on the case was lifted on Thursday.

The case refers to a September 2001 autopsy performed on a soldier who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The father signed a consent form, which he told the court he believed was to permit examining the head and the wound area. He explained he never imagined there would be a full autopsy, and certainly not that Hiss would take body tissue samples and preserve them in jars, burying his son without the missing samples.

The court accepted the father’s explanation. In addition, the emotional duress associated with the case has significantly contributed to the onset of mental illness the court ruled, adding to the amount paid since the father has been left disabled. The mother received an additional NIS 50,000.

It should be pointed out that Hiss has been accused of performing many unauthorized procedures and in the past, hundreds of jars of body tissue and organs were found in the pathology institute, attesting to the fact that many people have been buried without only a portion of their bodily organs.

Hiss has also been accused on more than one occasion of performing unauthorized autopsies, yet he continues to serve as the nation’s chief pathologist.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)