Cleared for publication: Three Jews suspected of setting Arab cars on fire have been detained by the ISA (Israel Security Agency – Shin Bet). One of the three is the father of three handicapped children and has been held by the GSS since Sunday, January 19.

His wife has made an emotional plea: Please, at least consider the condition of the handicapped children who need their father.

The three suspects are residents of Gilad Farm, Yitzhar and Elon Moreh and are being held by the GSS. Yehuda Landsberg, one of the three detainees, has been held since Sunday, January 19 and only yesterday (Monday, January 27) was allowed to meet with Honenu attorney Adi Kedar. The other two detainees were detained at four in the morning on Sunday, January 26 and have not yet been allowed to meet with an attorney.

No details of the case have been cleared for publication.

Yehuda Landsberg was detained on Sunday, January 19 and his remand has been extended until Thursday, January 30. He is a resident of Gilad Farm, aged 25 and the father of three handicapped children who require medical treatment in hospital. Landsberg’s wife, Emunah, calls on the GSS and the Central Unit of the Yehuda and Shomron Police to immediately release her husband, whom she believes is completely innocent, from remand, if only for the sake of their three children who have been separated for almost ten days from their father on whom they are dependent due to their medical condition and their handicaps. “It cannot be that in the State of Israel in 2014 the GSS holds the father of three handicapped children for such a long period of time, completely ignoring the condition of the children. I don’t know what the status of my husband is. I hope that they aren’t taking advantage of this delicate situation in order to force a false confession out of him about things he didn’t do. It worries us very much.”

Close friends of the three detainees are astounded by how the GSS repeatedly denies the detainees their right to meet with an attorney, an exceptional and rare step which is generally used in only the most serious cases or when detaining terrorists. Their friends note that in the past the public has been severely critical of the prevention of detainees from speaking to an attorney, which is a patently anti-democratic act. In a similar case Chaim Perlman was arrested on July 14, 2010 on suspicion of assaulting Arabs and prevented from meeting with a Honenu attorney for two weeks. As soon as a meeting was allowed Perlman was released and no charges were filed.

Honenu attorney Adi Kedar, who is representing the detainees said, “After almost ten days during which the suspect was not permitted to meet with me, I met the suspect in the detention facility for security prisoners. The suspect did not look well. He was brought to the meeting with me dressed in a prisoner’s uniform despite the fact that he was only a suspect and his conduct during the conversation was extremely strange.

“Due to the gag order on the case all that I can say at this time is that apparently the suspect was under unreasonable psychological pressure which included exploitation of the personal, family and medical difficulties of members of his family. This is a case of serious emotional abuse. As soon as the details of the case are revealed they will shed light on the unacceptable methods of interrogation used by the GSS and the police.

“Today it is clearly obvious that the GSS falsely presented the case in court in order to justify the extreme and unusual step of preventing a meeting between a suspect and his attorney. Today it became absolutely clear that preventing the meeting was completely unjustified.

“Without revealing details, I can say with certainty that the incident absolutely did not warrant investigation by the GSS and it was not a nationalistically motivated incident.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)