Israeli embassy will not defend Torres Del Paine fire suspect

The court room dealing with the Singer case. Photo: AveFenix4

PUERTO NATALES — The Israeli embassy will not take on the defense of 23-year-old Rotem Singer, suspected of causing the Torres del Paine forest fire, the embassy announced following a meeting with Israeli consul Hilly Gal-Or. The embassy stated that Singer’s family had found their own lawyer to take on the case, and that it would not get involved in the legal proceedings. Singer’s father arrived in Puerto Natales yesterday.

Israeli defense lawyer María Fernanda Benavides maintained that “the prosecution has insufficient evidence to implicate Singer. Nobody saw him start a fire.”

Meanwhile, the Israeli embassy has declined to offer compensation to Chile for the damage caused by the fire, given that it is not yet proven that Singer is the perpetrator. However, the embassy has declared its concerns for the ecological harm the fire is causing, offering support in the form of plant seedings in the national park and a delegation of experts in forestry once the fires have been contained.

Should Singer be proven guilty, it is likely that the Chilean government will make an official request for compensation from Israel, with the head of the Chilean Senate’s Environment Committee arguing that “when someone commits a crime in a foreign country against a heritage site, his country is morally and legally obligated to compensate for the heavy damage.”

Furthermore, when a Czech tourist caused a forest fire in the same national park in 2005, the Czech government paid USD$190,000 in compensation, as well as assisting in efforts to restore the park.