Hebrew language Ynet reports that the police and the defense establishment are calling on Shabak to investigate the rape of the seven-year-old girl. In spite of the fact that an indictment was filed against the 47-year-old resident of the village of Deir Qaddis, the demand for such an investigation was raised, due in part to many missing details, mainly because the two additional suspects mentioned in the indictment are still free.
Kusai, the son of the accused, told News 13: “We have a good reputation, and all the people in all the villages around us know us and our nobility. Abed, the defendant’s brother, said: “The police know that this is a conspiracy and knows who is behind it, and they claim that it happened on April 5 and before that, so why wasn’t he arrested immediately?
In a village in the Ramallah governorate, they refuse to believe that the defendant Katusa did what he was attributed to him. One of his acquaintances told Ynet that “everything that they say is false and false, the guy never thought of sexually harming the girl, he treats everyone in the best possible way, and I am sure that they farmed him without proof. He is an honest and respectable guy, he has now been in custody for almost two months.
According to the indictment, between February and April of this year, the suspect in the rape gave candy to the girl, after he knew her from of his cleaning job as a janitor in her school.
One day Katusa asked her to come to the house with him. She refused, and in response he pulled her to the building and did not stop even after she fell and cried. When the defendant and the girl arrived at the house, at least two of his friends were waiting for him. The defendant stripped the girl of her clothes, and according to the indictment his friends began to laugh.
The defendant then raped the little girl into one of the rooms in the house, and with the physical help of his friends, he raped her on the bed. After committing his deed, he threw her panties in the trash and sent her home. Katusa is charged with rape in aggravated circumstances, kidnapping and assault. The police say that they have no indication that this is a nationalistic motivated attack.
According to the girl’s testimony, there are as many as two to three other suspects who held her down her during the rape. They have not yet been caught. The main evidence in the case is the girl’s testimony, since the physical indications did not emerge as legal evidence – similar to the results of a rape test kit – because of the weeks between rape and investigation.
However, the fact that the girl identified the defendant with rape and even the house in which he worked in her community of residence reinforced the charge against him. Katusa himself denies the allegations, even though during the investigation he was found to be lying on a polygraph test. The family did not immediately complain to the police, but first consulted with members of its community.
Drawing by Israela Lev
