Wife of man convicted in Duma arson murder blasts court: ‘It was a show trial’

In addressing the sentencing hearing, the wife of the man convicted for the Duma firebombing writes that justice has not been served as her husband is innocent.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The wife of Amiram Ben Uliel wrote the court, which is hearing sentencing arguments Tuesday following her husband’s conviction last month in a triple homicide, that his trial had been a “show” put on by the security services and that her husband is innocent, N12 reported Tuesday.

Ben Uliel was convicted for killing three members of the Dawabshe family in a 2015 firebombing in the Arab village of Duma. His lawyers maintain that he confessed to the crime only because he had been brutalized by his interrogators. The court ultimately decided to throw out only part of his confession due to the torture.

“You made a huge mistake,” Orian Ben Uliel said to the judges in a letter obtained by the news site. “You fell in line with the production of the Shabak [Israel’s internal security services], which decided to get results from the Duma investigation no matter what.

“You sanctioned the public relations show produced in the interrogation rooms with torture, and then running to film [a confession] afterward, as if the pain had passed, as if the fear was removed; as if someone who underwent torture goes back to having free will hours afterward in those same rooms and with those same people.”

The torture her husband suffered reminded her of dark days in Jewish history.

“My husband has already been punished in the interrogations… the pain and mental scars left by the torture are a punishment far greater than any other penalty. There are few people in Israel who have been punished like this by the authorities, who were physically whipped and tortured horribly, like in the days of the Inquisition and Middle Ages,” she continued.

Orian said that the Dawabshe family should have gotten real justice for their loss.

“The Dawabshe family underwent a terrible event, they deserved a fair trial, a trial that would bring a true judgment. Instead, they get a show and a drummed-up case against an innocent man,” she wrote.

“My husband is innocent, he didn’t do anything, everyone knows this,” she concluded. “This case should never have come to trial. I expect you to correct this injustice and change your minds.”

Ben Uliel’s lawyers intend to appeal his conviction to the Supreme Court. They have not been alone in pointing out numerous contradictions in witnesses’ testimonies and the implausibility of one man being able to do all the things the prosecutors said he did, besides the proven unreliability of confessions obtained under torture.