Mother who admitted drowning baby son to be charged with murder

A woman who told investigators she held her infant son underwater because a divine voice told her he would emerge from it as a grown man is to be charged with murder, despite a psychiatrist finding her unfit to stand trial.

Prosecutors submitted court papers in Ashdod Monday declaring their intention to file an indictment for murder against the woman, whose identity is barred from publication under a gag order. As a result of the upcoming murder indictment, she was remanded in custody for a further five days.

The mother of the 1-month-old baby is suspected of having submerged the infant at least three times in a hotel jacuzzi on April 2, believing that a divine voice was telling her that he was “the Messiah’s son,” earlier court papers show.

She was initially suspected of criminal wrongdoing, a significantly lesser charge than murder, while the father was suspected of obstructing justice.

But the father, whose lawyer claimed he had nothing to do with the baby’s death, was released from detention earlier this month, and police are reportedly reconsidering the case against him.

The woman, who has a history of mental problems, is currently hospitalized in a psychiatric ward on court orders. A week after the tragedy a district psychiatrist ruled that she was not mentally fit to stand trial.

The couple, both aged 28, have a 7-year-old son and — according to people involved in the case quoted by Hebrew media — had recently succeeded in having another child after years of trying.

Hailing from the Beit Shemesh area, near Jerusalem, they were vacationing in an Ashdod hotel during the Passover holiday when the incident occurred.

The woman reportedly changed her version of events several times.

On the day of the drowning, paramedics attempted to resuscitate the infant and rushed him to the city’s Assuta Medical Center, but medical staff were unable to save his life.

The couple, ultra-Orthodox Jews, objected to a police request to carry out an autopsy on the baby’s body to help determine the cause of death. Jewish tradition generally opposes autopsies on the grounds that the human body is sacred and should not be tampered with after death.

In the end, an autopsy was performed in the presence of a doctor picked by the family, after the High Court accepted the police request.

For several days, ultra-Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem, Ashdod, and Beit Shemesh protested the investigation and planned autopsy, temporarily blocking traffic and the light rail system and clashing with police.

The baby’s eventual burial was temporarily disrupted when members of an extreme ultra-Orthodox sect seized the body from an ambulance.