Sugar Cubes

Zaid and Abdelhadi were both 16 when they were arrested from the town of Al-Azzariya near Jerusalem . Under duress, both confessed to, and were subsequently charged with membership of a banned organisation and throwing Molotov cocktails. Seeing that both boys had confessed, albeit that the confessions were coerced, their first lawyer reckoned there was a less-than-50% chance of the boys being acquitted. He approached the prosecutor to try and strike a plea bargain, and succeeded in persuading the latter to agree to a 19-month prison sentence and a NIS 1,000-fine if Zaid and Abdelhadi pleaded guilty.

The boys however, both insisted on pleading innocent and sought another defence lawyer who took on their case. The lawyer went for a closed hearing so that he could put the interrogators, as well as other witnesses and the boys themselves, onto the stand for questioning. Having heard their testimonies however, the court ruled against the boys and the judge handed down a 25-month sentence each.

The prosecution, which in the plea-bargain had been prepared to settle for a 19-month sentence, then took the case to the military appeal court in search of a higher sentence. The appeal court found in favour of the prosecution and increased the sentence to 42 months each.

[Defence for Children International]