A Gaza flotilla activist accused of attacking a prison guard will be deported from Israel this weekend after striking a plea bargain with prosecutors on Friday.
Reyes Rigo Cervilla, a 56-year-old Spanish citizen who partook in the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla earlier this month, will board a flight back to Spain on Saturday after being convicted on two counts of assault.
She will also pay a fine of NIS 10,000 (around $3,055) before departing Israel.
Authorities initially claimed that Cervilla bit a guard while being returned to her cell after a medical check-up at Ketziot Prison before she was scheduled to be deported, but she has denied the allegation.
Police prosecutors from the Negev precinct later backtracked on this allegation and in an amended indictment filed with the Beersheba Magistrate’s Court said only that she scratched the officer while refusing to enter her cell.
Cervilla attacked the guard by “grabbing her by the left hand and digging her nails into her flesh,” causing her “a deep cut and redness,” prosecutors charged. The guard’s cut was disinfected and she was given a tetanus vaccine.
The Spanish activist pleaded guilty to the charges in order to return home, her lawyer Hayl Abu Gharara told The Times of Israel, though she maintains that she acted in self-defense and accused the prison guard of behaving violently toward her and her friend.
As a result of the plea bargain, police do not have to show footage of the incident to the court, which Abu Gharara claimed would have exposed the guard’s allegedly violent behavior.
“I advised the defendant and told her that the proposed bargain was harsh, but at the end of the day she agreed to accept the deal, despite the arguments she has regarding the incident,” he told the court.
During her hearing, Cervilla claimed 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.”
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 alleged guards had repeatedly mistreated them over the course of their detention.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the prison service, said in a statement that he was “proud� of the harsh conditions the activists were subjected to.
“I went to visit Ketziot Prison and I was proud that we are treating the ‘flotilla activists’ as terror supporters, whoever supports terrorism is a terrorist, and deserves the conditions of terrorists,” he said Sunday.
Israel intercepted 42 vessels of the Sumud flotilla on October 1. The flotilla, which carried a symbolic amount of humanitarian aid, was the latest attempt by activists to challenge Israel’s years-long naval blockade on Gaza.
Similar attempts were intercepted in June and July, amid spiking international anger at Israel over the humanitarian crisis in the Strip. Israeli officials have denounced the Sumud and other missions as pro-Hamas stunts.