Netanyahu dismisses Shin Bet torture claims

Prime Minister Netanyahu defends the Shin Bet from accusations that, in an effort to extract confessions, the security agency has been torturing the Jewish suspects in a firebombing attack that killed three members of a Palestinian family in July.

Responding to a query on the matter from Knesset Member Miki Zohar at the weekly Likud faction meeting, Netanyahu asserts that “all of the interrogations are conducted lawfully, and with the oversight of the attorney general and the court,” according to Haaretz.

“Contrary to the claims, no one is diverging from the rules,” he says.

The prime minister goes on to say that the law is “the same for Jews, Arabs, Christians and Circassians.”

As officials indicated they would be moving toward indictments in the case in the coming days, the detainees held in connection with the firebombing of the Dawabsha home in Duma have alleged abuse at the hands of their interrogators.

One detainee reportedly alleged that he had tried to slit his wrists in despair over harsh interrogation methods, a claim swiftly denied by the Shin Bet security service.

Some of them have also been denied meetings with an attorney.

The arrests of the suspects, which have come amid a general crackdown on Jewish extremists in the wake of the attack, have angered many right-wing Jewish activists.

On Sunday, some night 300 people blocked a road at the entrance to Jerusalem in protest, and clashed with police.

— Times of Israel staff contributed