The Israel Prisons Service (IPS) has notified the Honenu legal advocacy organization that it is considering the transfer of Amiram Ben Uliel, who was convicted of the murder in Duma, to a religious prison wing. The notification comes after eight years during which he was in solitary confinement.
The answer was given in response to a letter that was sent by Ben Uliel's attorney, Adi Keidar from Honenu, in which he mentions the harsh conditions in which the prisoner is being kept."My client, a prisoner in the secured wing, is married and the father of a female minor and leads a haredi lifestyle. The prisoner is alone in his cell, without television, and with no option for education or activities in the prison, and spends his time studying and praying in his cell. The prisoner has been in custody since 2015 and does not receive conjugal visits. In recent months the prisoner began to receive phone calls from family after many years of phone calls being withheld. For many years, the prisoner has been kept in high-security wings, in a solitary cell, and there is a significant fear for his medical and mental situation after long years of isolation."
The attorney asked the prisoner officer at Eshel Prison to allow Ben Uliel to transfer to a religious wing: "The prisoner submitted several requests to move to a religious wing, the appropriate wing for his lifestyle, and appropriate for the prisoner, and he was yet to be answered. We ask you to positively consider this request since, as mentioned, the years-long stay alone in a cell critically harms my client and his health, the appropriate place for the prisoner is the religious wing, where he can participate in the study, prayers with a quorum, and the other relevant activities."
Attorney Keidar stated: "There is no better opportunity than the new year and the holiday season to fix this continuous injustice and to transfer Amiram to proper conditions, and we hope that it will be done before Rosh Hashana."
It is estimated that the request is being positively considered both due to the many protests on the matter and due to the policy of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who ordered that it can not be that Arab terrorists enjoy much better conditions than Jewish security prisoners and even than some of the regular criminal prisoners.
