Third soldier accused of beating Palestinian suspects said to agree to plea deal

An IDF soldier, part of a group of five servicemen accused of beating two Palestinian prisoners last month, reportedly accepted a plea deal with military prosecutors on Wednesday, joining two of his comrades who made a similar agreement earlier in the week.

The soldier will plead guilty to aggravated abuse and receive 190 days in prison, the Kan public broadcaster reported.

The soldiers, from the religious Netzah Yehuda Battalion of the Kfir Brigade, were arrested and charged with abusing the Palestinian suspects, believed to have assisted a terrorist who had killed two of their comrades in a shooting attack at a bus stop.

Earlier this week the military said two of the accused soldiers agreed to a deal under which they will plead guilty to aggravated abuse and serve six and a half months in prison, while avoiding a more serious charge of aggravated assault.

They will also be placed on probation and demoted in rank to private.

The five soldiers were indicted for aggravated assault and aggravated abuse. Two of them were also charged with obstruction of justice for attempting to coordinate their statements before they were interrogated.

According to the indictment, the soldiers viciously beat the two handcuffed and blindfolded prisoners — a father and son, who have since been charged with abetting the terrorist — and filmed their actions with a smartphone. One of the prisoners sustained such serious injuries that he was hospitalized and could not be interrogated by Israeli security forces for several days.

The soldiers’ commanding officer, a lieutenant, was also charged this month with failing to prevent the assault, despite knowing that it was occurring.

Since the indictments were filed, military prosecutors have attempted to convince the servicemen to accept a plea deal in order to avoid trial.

On December 13 Palestinian Asem Barghouti opened fire at a bus stop outside the Givat Assaf outpost near Ramallah, killing two soldiers stationed there and seriously injuring a third serviceman and a civilian woman, according to the IDF.

Barghouti, who fled the scene after the shooting, was arrested in the home of an alleged accomplice in the nearby village of Abu Shukheidim on January 8. The two Palestinians involved in the beating incident were arrested the same day in the village on suspicion they assisted Barghouti in hiding from security forces.

The five soldiers were accused of “striking the Palestinians with slaps, punches and bludgeons, while they were handcuffed and blindfolded, causing them serious injuries,” the army said in a statement last month.

According to the indictment against the soldiers, during the assault, the troops removed the blindfold from the son “so that he would see how they were hitting” his father.

One of the soldiers filmed the violence with his cellphone, while the other soldiers “cheered with joy and pride to one another — all of this in front of the camera lens,” according to the indictment.

Soldiers in the Netzah Yehuda Battalion, which operates in the West Bank, have been at the center of several controversies connected to right-wing extremists and Palestinians, especially of late.

The battalion was created so that ultra-Orthodox and other religious soldiers can serve without feeling they are compromising their beliefs. The soldiers do not interact with female troops to the same extent as other servicemen and are given additional time for prayer and study.