The Ben Uliel family, whose son Amiram has been charged as the prime suspect in the Duma arson case, responded to the murder indictment on Sunday, stressing his innocence.
In a video message, the Ben Ulliel family said: “We the parents of Amiram are shocked and appalled by the news that has been associated to our beloved son."
"We believe in the innocence of our son that will be proven in court, and we hope that the courts will reveal the harsh and violent abuse that he has suffered these past weeks during the interrogation process," the family added. "We want to stress that we are against any and all violence against any person.”
Oryan Ben Uliel, Amiram's wife, spoke to Arutz Sheva on Sunday and asserted that her husband "is innocent. He didn't do anything. This is all a political witch-hunt."
"My husband is innocent. He suffered incredible amounts of physical and sexual abuse, he was not allowed to sleep. He was abused without mercy until he felt he would die. He kept screaming 'God save me! God save me!' and they just kept on hitting him. I saw with my own eyes when they arrested him. The beat hit terribly and then they confiscated all of the cameras on which the arrest was filmed. They pulled confessions out of him regarding things that he did not do."
Oryan claimed that some of things to which Amiram allegedly confessed he could not have done because he was with her at home.
"I know he didn't do these things. I know because he was with me at home on the night in which they accuse him of perpetrating some of these events. It is simply a lie and a political with-hunt. They are accusing him because he has a big kippah and large sidelocks. He didn't do any of this. And the person who did do this is still at large."
Lawyers respond to the indictment
In a press conference held on Sunday morning, lawyers for the accused also responded to the indictment.
Adi Keidar told reporters that "not only were the suspects abused and tortured, it is my suspicions that the prosecutors who submitted the indictment did it under duress."
"I would like to remind you all that for over 40 days our client was accused of being guilty of direct involvement in a murder, and today, after 40 days it was revealed that these accusations had no connection to reality."
"In the written indictment he is not accused of murder at all," Keidar charged. "I think that this is a day of soul searching for the Israel Security Agency (ISA) and for the prosecution. I believe that in the coming days as we learn more about the alleged proofs that have been attained, only then will we know just how great the oversight on the part of ISA has been."