Twelve prison guards were indicted Tuesday on charges of reckless homicide in the death of Palestinian prisoner Thaer Abu Asab in November 2023, who was severely beaten in his prison cell in Ketziot Prison in the Negev desert.

Abu Asab sustained tears in the wall of the heart on the left-ventricular side and in the right atrium, and several broken ribs, as a result of the beating, which led to cardiac failure and his ultimate death, the indictment said.

According to the indictment filed by the State Attorney’s Office to the Beersheba District Court, senior prison officer Walid Hatib initiated and oversaw the beatings. He ordered 11 prison guards in the prison wing he was responsible for to enter one of the cells and beat the prisoners on November 18, 2023.

“Immediately upon entering the cell, as detailed above, the defendants, acting together, beat the deceased [Abu Asab] and all the other prisoners in the cell with their fists and kicked them. Some of them struck the prisoners forcefully with batons while some of the prisoners were lying on the floor, screaming and crying from the severity of the blows,” the indictment alleged.

The indictment said Hatib led the prison guards to the cell, entered it with them, and beat at least one prisoner while overseeing the physical assault of the other prisoners by the other guards, only ordering the prison guards to stop and........

© The Times of Israel