Yoram Sheftel
Yoram SheftelFlash90

'The Pursuit of Justice' podcast of the Honenu organization, which on Wednesday dealt with the issue of the Duma case, featured Atty. Yoram Sheftel, who initially represented the person convicted in the case - Amiram Ben-Uliel.

Sheftel represented Amiram Ben-Uliel at the beginning of the trial. He explained why he left the case and what distortions he found in the court's conduct along the way.

He said it was clear to him in advance that there was no possibility that the court would acquit Ben-Uliel.

"The court refused to order the IPS, for the purpose of preparing the trial and during the trial, to let us meet with the defendant as any attorney meets with any client. The reason was that terrorist cases do not allow direct conversation except through telephones and a glass partition. The fact that the court from the beginning drew a direct link between a Jewish defendant facing him and the murderers of Hamas and Fatah made it clear to me that there was no possibility that such a court would acquit Ben-Uliel, despite the fact that the confession was taken from him through barbaric torture that the court was aware of even before the start of the trial."

To explain the magnitude of the distortion, Sheftel compared the Duma trial to another famous trial in which he took an active part: the Demjanjuk trial. "Demjanjuk was charged with the murder of 900,000 Jews and yet no one prevented me all along the way from meeting him without partitions and exchanging documents with him, without anyone hearing the conversation between us. That is to say, a Ukrainian accused of murdering 900,000 Jews received from the court preferential treatment over what Amiram received."

In light of this, Sheftel, together with Atty. Yitzhak Bam of the Honenu organization, decided to remove themselves from Ben-Uliel's case.

Sheftel explained the motives behind the decision. "My participation in this procedure that was poisoned from the beginning, gives a kosher certificate to the procedure, so I did not agree in any way to continue the representation."

Sheftel also referred to the Shabak's claim that the arson in the Duma led to Arab terrorist attacks. According to Sheftel, this is a claim intended to justify the barbaric torture of Amiram. "As if the Arabs needed an excuse to murder Jews," Sheftel said.

He added that "I recently came across an indictment of a man who threw a Molotov cocktail into a house that was known to be inhabited, and the charge is not attempted murder."