From the Liveblog of
Thursday, October 7, 2021
Inmates charged with setting fire to prison cells last month
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
Two Islamic Jihad prisoners are charged with setting fire to cells in southern Israel’s Ramon Prison last month, following the escape of six Palestinian security prisoners from a different facility, the Justice Ministry announces.
Omar ar-Roub, who is serving a life sentence, and Hammouda Zaika, placed mattresses in a cell’s shower room and set them on fire using a lighter, causing damage to the walls of the toilet cubicle and the cell, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors say that if the prison guards had not managed to extinguish the fire quickly, “the fire could have spread throughout the prison and the incident could have ended in terrible disaster and loss of life.”
