Israeli ex-officer demands damages in rape case against Hezbollah prisoner

Sunday, 22 January 2012

Mustafa Dirani (C), is hugged by his son Ali in 2004. (AFP)

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By AFP
JERUSALEM

An Israeli former officer accused of raping a Lebanese Hezbollah prisoner during questioning has demanded $1.4 million in damages plus interest from the state, media reports said on Sunday.

“Captain George,” whose real identity has not been made public, was sacked from the army several years ago primarily over his methods in interrogating Mustafa Dirani, the private Channel Two television station reported.

Dirani was captured in south Lebanon on May 21, 1994, and used as a bargaining chip for information on the fate of missing Israeli airman Ron Arad, a navigator whose plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986.

Dirani was eventually released in January 2004 in a prisoner swap.

On Sunday, Israeli television channels broadcast video footage said to be extracts from Dirani’s questioning, in which his interrogators ordered him to strip.

“Captain George,” his face obscured electronically, denied to Channel Two that he had tortured the prisoner, and said he had always acted by obeying the orders of his superiors.

“My superiors abandoned me. I’m treated like a scapegoat, and since I have been out of the army I haven’t been able to get work,” he said, to justify his demand for damages and interest from the military and the defence ministry.

In January 2004, before he was freed, Dirani testified before a Tel Aviv court that he had been physically and sexually abused during his interrogation.

Dirani’s lawyer asked for $1.3 million in compensation, but no Israeli court has yet ruled on the eligibility of his complaint.

Dirani called “Captain George” a sadistic torturer, whom he alleged used a police baton to rape him