NAZARETH, (The Palestine Foundation Pakistan)Reyes Rigo Cervilla, a 56-year-old Spanish citizen who partook in the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla earlier this month, will be deported through Jordan today, Sunday, after being coerced into signing a confession under pressure, admitting to assaulting an Israeli prison guard.
The activist affirmed that her actions were in self-defense after she and her friend were subjected to abuse during their detention.
She will also pay a fine of 10,000 shekels (around $3,055) before her deportation.
According to the Hebrew media, Israeli prosecutors initially claimed that Cervilla bit a guard while being returned to her cell at Ketziot prison, but she has denied the accusation.
Israeli prosecutors later backtracked on this allegation and they said, in an amended indictment filed with the Beersheba magistrate’s court, that only she scratched the officer while refusing to enter her cell.
The Spanish activist had to plead guilty to the charges in order to return home, her lawyer told The Times of Israel, adding that she acted in self-defense and accused the prison guard of behaving violently towards her and her friend.
The lawyer said the Israeli police have footage of the incident that would have exposed the guard’s violent behavior towards the Spanish activist and her friend.
During a court hearing, Cervilla insisted that she was subject to beatings and violence from prison guards during her detention.
“They gave me beatings, they pushed us a lot,” she told the court. “Unlike what was described, they attacked my friend, I tried to defend her. When I got ahold of my friend they grabbed me by the head and my glasses fell. After receiving all sorts of shoves from every which way, I got up from the floor,” Cervilla explained.
She further described being forbidden from exiting an overcrowded cell for an entire day. “We were 14 women in a five-person cell. They didn’t give us water, the food was smelly, I was shoved, they hit us, I didn’t receive everything I should have,” she said.
Cervilla’s claims echoed those of prominent Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and other participants in the Sumud flotilla, who said that Israeli guards had repeatedly mistreated them over the course of their detention.
