
As the court case against Bibi Netanyahu continues, state witness Nir Chefetz declaimed his police interrogation as “draconian” and “monstrous.”
Defense lawyer Boaz Ben Tzur hopes that Chefetz’s description of the police persecution will undermine his testimony against Netanyahu.
Chefetz began by saying he got the impression the police were on a witch hunt against Netanyahu from the start.
“My confidence that the [police] investigation into Case 4000 was genuine and without extraneous considerations was close to zero,” Chefetz said. “I thought it was a persecution. The draconian measures used against me strengthened my distrust of those who investigated.”
In a transcript of the police interrogation, an interrogator says to Chefetz: “I hope you have really good tapes [for us to use against Netanyahu], because otherwise you’ll miss the train. The night you just got through can be repeated for years. Your son will get an army promotion, you won’t be there. Your daughter will complete a degree, you won’t be there. Think about your children. Think about your wife.”
“The explosion you’ll experience in the next two days will shock your world,” the interrogators warned him. “You’re not considering our capabilities or what we can do. We are [police department] 433, with interrogation methods similar to the Shabak. Everything that you imagine can be, will be. I’m not deceiving you, Nir. Your children will not want to be in touch with you; neither will your wife. The consequences are beyond prison and the media — your family is in danger.”
“The threat was clear,” Chefetz told the court. “If I didn’t supply a story, there would be a threat on my family.”
“An investigator I never knew or saw came in later and called my wife from a cellphone! Before my eyes!” Chefetz continued. “And he [falsely] said they were going to release me and tomorrow I’d be home. I said to the investigator, ‘Why are you playing with my family’s feelings? Leave the family alone! This is a disgusting procedure.’ After this ploy, my detention was extended by eight days.”
“They put me into a cell as filthy as a monkey cage,” Chefetz recalled. “Initially, they brought in all kinds of prisoners dressed in orange and speaking Arabic. Afterward, they brought in Arabs from Gaza. One of them recognized me [from a photo of myself] with Netanyahu. They began yelling, ‘Netanyahu! Netanyahu!’ and rattling their shackles. Due to this and other things that happened in the cell, I thought I was in danger, that I would not get out alive.”
“They took me from bed at 6:00 [a.m.] to an interrogating room,” Chefetz continued. “I ate nothing until the next day. All that I ate were sandwiches from a machine. In prison, they gave me five slices of bread with jam and chocolate… I ate nothing except what I’ve described.”
“It was war,” Chefetz told the court. “The investigators wanted to worm everything out of me. They wanted to see everything. On every single document, I wrote they should only use material related to the investigation, and nothing private. But they put incredible pressure on me to sign and allow them to copy everything from my computer. I realized it was a threat, that they would shatter my privacy; they didn’t mince their words.”
Claiming that the Department of Internal Police Investigations rejected a request from Chefetz to investigate his barbaric interrogation, Boaz Ben Tzur said he planned to summon DIPI head Keren Bar Menachem and her deputy Moshe Saada to testify.
Former Labor minister Chaim Rimon, who is known for his criticism of Israel’s justice system, said that Chefetz’s description of his interrogation and imprisonment were not unusual.
“It’s a daily reality that the rights of defendants and witnesses are trampled on in broad daylight,” Rimon said. “There is no case in which police investigators and attorneys who extorted confessions with blackmail, carried out improper investigations, or maliciously concealed investigative materials from the defense were ever prosecuted.”
“Every political and civic body that fights for human rights and the rule of law must work for the establishment of a government commission of inquiry to investigate the illegal practices revealed here and in similar cases,” he added.
{Matzav.com Israel}
The Shin Daled has been doing worse since Day one. Nothing new here.
And this is done to extort testimony against a prime minister who did so much good for the state of Israel and the Jews who live there? What a corrupt system.
The Zionist paradise, and what they do to even secular Jews.
Israel is a police state. Always has been.