Palestinian Suspect Named in Lynching of 2 Soldiers

The Israeli government for the first time identified a suspect in the Oct. 12 lynching of two soldiers, announcing Thursday that a 23-year-old Palestinian university student was being held in the case.

The army announcement apparently was prompted by an Israeli television report that the student, Thabet Abbas Asi, was beaten while in police custody. And the statement lifts, at least slightly, the official veil of secrecy in the sensational case.

Officials confirmed last week that security forces had arrested between six and eight men on suspicion of involvement in the Israeli soldiers’ slaying and mutilation, but they have declined to identify the suspects or provide details.

The announcement said Asi, from the West Bank village of Beit Liqiya, has admitted being present in the Ramallah police station at the time of the men’s deaths there and told police that he had kicked the body of one soldier.

But the young man’s family and neighbors, interviewed in their village after his arrest but before Thursday’s army statement, said he has no criminal record, has never been politically active and was at home with them at the time of the attack.

“He has never, ever been arrested,” said his 33-year-old brother, Hisham Asi.

The Israelis were killed by a frenzied crowd after they took a wrong turn into the tense West Bank city at the height of recent violent unrest.

Israel created a joint-operations team to capture suspects in the case, a military official said. The team was drawn from the General Security Service, or Shin Bet, and the undercover army commando unit called Duvdevan, the official said. Because of the sensitivity of the case, he asked not to be identified.

Hisham Asi said a neighbor in the isolated village near Ramallah knocked on their door at 4 a.m. Oct. 15 to say that Israeli soldiers were there to arrest Thabet. The suspect’s father woke the student, told him to dress and sent him outside, the brother said.

Only two or three uniformed soldiers had come to the door, but once Thabet was outside, many more--armed with M-16s--emerged from a nearby olive grove, Hisham Asi said.

The father overheard the squad’s commander advising soldiers to “take him gently,” according to Hisham Asi. No force was used at that time, and the family was given no information as the student was led away in handcuffs.

Family members said Thabet is a fourth-year student at Al Quds University in Ramallah, with a month to go before graduation. They said Thabet, the sixth of 13 children, is quiet and spends much of his time working in a nearby carpentry shop.

Neighbors called him a “simple man” and said that such large numbers of soldiers were probably unnecessary in his arrest. “He seems kind of defenseless,” said Umran Asi, 35, a distant relative who owns a small grocery in the village. “It would never come to your mind that he would be involved in this.”

Israel’s Channel One television said Thursday that six Jerusalem police officers have been suspended without pay for beating the suspect. A Justice Ministry spokesman said he could not comment.