Two Israelis indicted for Duma arson attack and 3 murders

After a long and controversial investigation, Amiram Ben-Oliel, 21 and a minor were indicted at the Central District Court Sunday for the arson attack last July that caused the deaths of a Palestinian couple and their infant at the village of Duma southeast of Nablus. Ben-Oliel was charged with three counts of murder, two of arson and one count of conspiring to commit a nationalist-motivated crime. The 17-year old minor was only charged with the last crime. The prosecution told the court that the two defendants had incriminated one another. They are charged with seeking to avenge the murder by Palestinian terrorists of Malachi Rosenfeld a month earlier, as well as attempting to stir up a violent security crisis that would defer any government plans to evacuate Jewish settlements. Ben-Oliel’s parents firmly declared they were certain their son’s innocence would be established and asked the judges to take into account that the defendants were subjected to severe torture during their weeks of interrogation in prison. The defendant’s parents affirmed their utter opposition to violence of any sort and causing people harm.
The minor was additionally charged with complicity in acts of vandalism, including setting a fire at the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem, torching a car on the Alon highway, slashing the tires of Palestinian cars and burning a corn store in Aqraba.