A plea bargain agreement was signed on Monday between the military prosecutor and the attorney for one of the five Nachal Chareidi soldiers charged with assaulting abusing Palestinians in their custody all the while their hands were bound, and their eyes covered with blindfolds. The five were indicted last month.

The conditions of this agreement, the second of five, are more or less the same as the first signed on Sunday, a day earlier. The soldier will admit to the allegations against him, accepting responsibility for his actions, and he will be convicted of aggravated abuse.

In exchange, the soldier will be punished with six-and-a-half-months imprisonment, he will be demoted to the rank of private and will receive a suspended sentence. The settlement was formulated at the conclusion of the mediation process and will be brought for approval by the Jaffa Military Court.

The indictment states that during the search for terrorists who killed their comrades in the Givat Assaf terror attack, the fighters beat the Palestinians with slaps, punching and blunt objects, while they were handcuffed and blindfolded and severely bruised them. According to the indictment, the Palestinians needed medical treatment because of beating them, and as a result, they could not be interrogated about the terrorist attacks for which they were arrested.

The father of one of the accused fighters described in the interview that according to the description he received, the Palestinian collaborators teased the soldiers during the arrest, sometime after they were involved in the murder of their good friends from the company.

“Even if they were wrong, why transfer everything to a criminal trial, I did not send my son, who enlisted as a fighter with a peak motivation, to return as a criminal,” the father said.

The mothers of the fighters sent a letter to the chief of staff, in which they wrote, among other things, “Our sons chose to perform a meaningful combat service in a framework that suits their world, their way of life and their beliefs. Throughout the service, they underwent an arduous professional training course by a wonderful team of commanders. They have become a brave company, a professional and good company that protects the citizens of the State of Israel and acts without fear to locate terrorists trying to harm state security.

“In recent weeks, they lost Sergeant Yosef Cohen and Sergeant Yuval Mor Yosef, members of the company, in a series of events, and even dealt with the injury of two others. If there were mistakes in their activity or discretion, the military establishment knew, to examine all the considerations, to look at the broad picture, and at the end of the day to behave in a decent and proper manner with its fighters, the best of its sons.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)