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Israeli Court Rejects Claims of Forced Confession by Amir

June 6, 1996
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
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The Tel Aviv District Court has rejected the claims of Hagai Amir, the brother of Yitzhak Rabin’s convicted assassin, that investigators used psychological pressure to force a confession.

Amir, along with the brother Yigal Amir and friend Dror Adani, have been charged with conspiring to kill Rabin and planning attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank.

The three have pleaded innocent to the charges.

In March, the same court convicted Yigal Amir of Shooting Rabin at a Nov. 4 peace rally. Amir is serving a life sentence in jail.

An attorney for Hagai Amir charged that investigators had threatened to blow up his parents’ house, questioned him at 4 a.m. and kept him in isolation.

But the court Wednesday rejected any suggestion of impropriety.

According to the charge sheet, Hagai Amir amassed a large arsenal of weapons in his family’s home, and crafted the hollow-point bullets with which his brother shot the prime minister.

Attorneys for both Hagai Amir and Adani said their clients did not know about Yigal Amir’s intent to kill Rabin.

Yigal Amir was apprehended by police minutes after the shooting. Her brother and Adani were arrested days later.

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