The attorney representing an Arab worker accused of abducting and raping a seven-year-old girl from a haredi school has denied the charges against his client, claiming that ‘shocking’ revelations would soon turn the case “on its head”.
Nashaf Darwish, an Israeli-Arab attorney representing Mahmoud Nazmi Abed Alhamid Katusa, told Channel 12 Tuesday morning that while he had not yet spoke with the accused, he believes that Katusa had been accused without a proper basis of evidence.
“After having looked into the details of the case, I can tell you that this is like the ‘Dreyfus Affair’, and the case will be turned on its head.”
“I can say with certainty that people are going to be shocked by the results that will be coming in the next few days.”
Katusa, a 46-year-old resident of the Palestinian Authority-controlled town of Deir Qaddis, next to the haredi city of Modiin Illit, was indicted Sunday of abducting and raping a seven-year-old Israeli girl from the school in a haredi city where he worked as a janitor and maintenance man.
In a separate interview with Army Radio – Galey Tzahal, Darwish acknowledged that he had not yet met Katusa, but had spoken with him over the phone, and said he was living a “normal lifestyle”.
“While I haven’t met him yet, I have spoken with him and with his family. I saw the indictment; there’s no question regarding the seriousness of the accusations as they appear in the indictment. If they’re true, it is a very serious incident.”
Katusa “leads a normal lifestyle, and this case hit him and his family like an earthquake. He worked there for years, with no complaints like this ever. On the one hand you a normal person like this, on the other you see this shocking story – something isn’t right here.”
According to Walla!, Darwish accused the IDF prosecutor of mishandling the case.
“Dreyfus affair – I looked into the evidence and this [case] really looks like that.”
“In a little while the whole thing will be flipped, and the indictment won’t be against Mahmoud, but against the army prosecutor and against the army court because of the way in which the case was handled. It is scandalous.”
An IDF court is expected to hold a hearing Wednesday on the prosecution’s request that Katusa be held in jail until the end of his trial.
