Alwaght- Israeli regime's security agency Shin Bet forces Palestinians to confess crimes they have not committed, a panel of Israeli judges declared on Monday.
The statement came after A panel of Be'er Sheva District Court judges acquitted a Palestinian youth of plotting a bomb attack against a hotel in the southern resort city of Eilat in 2015.
Last month the court found that Nimri, 23-year-old Khalil Nimri, of East al-Quds, had confessed under pressure and his interrogators made him believe they would harm his family and coerced him into admitting he was part of the bomb plot.
In 2015, a hotel clerk wrongly identified Nimri as a man who came in and started asking suspicious questions, before realizing his mistake and warning the police who then arrested another suspect, Ashraf Salameh.
But instead of letting Nimri go, the regime's security agency threatened to harm his family and kept him in prison.
However the israeli District Court issued a ruling on Monday and condemed Shin Bet’s methods.
“However, based on the partial evidence before us, it appears a horrible error has been made, with the investigative techniques leading to a false confession.”
The judges continued “Shin Bet needs to take a good look at itself so that interrogation techniques, which do indeed sometimes uncover dangerous acts of terrorism, aren't also liable to induce innocent people to admit to acts that they did not commit… There is tangible concern that the defendant was arrested and spent two years in detention over no fault of his own."
What’s more, the judges added, Nimri’s interrogators failed to carry out basic procedures such as checking his alibi, setting-up a lineup or going through CCTV footage, where Nimri doesn’t appear.
"These actions would have been taken had the defendant been investigated by any regular police investigator, at any police station in Israel. Israel Police investigators know the suspect's claims must be checked immediately, even if they don't believe him. Unfortunately, Shin Bet did not conduct the investigative procedures that are commonplace in the police and led the defendant to confess he had visited the hotel."
