Israeli Filmmakers Released By SSS After Spending 20 In Prison Without Charges

After 20 days in captivity without being charged in court by the Nigerian government, the State Security Service (SSS) has released the three Israeli filmmakers in its custody.

Rudy Rochman, a Zionist activist, Noam Leibman, a filmmaker, and E. David Benaym, a French-Israeli journalist, were arrested by the secret police on July 9 on suspicion of supporting the activities of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

The trio was apprehended while filming a documentary called “We Were Never Lost” in Ogidi village, Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State. The film explores Jewish communities in African countries such as Kenya, Madagascar, Uganda, and Nigeria.

They were, however, freed from prison on Tuesday night and returned to Israel on Wednesday evening. According to a joint statement signed by the filmmakers and shared on their Instagram page, their flight was scheduled to arrive in Israel at 9:00 a.m. (Israel time) on Thursday.

They claimed they were brought to the SSS facility in Anambra and held there for 24 hours before being transported to the SSS headquarters in Abuja through “hazardous transport.”

According to them, Nigerian bloggers hijacked images from the social media pages of “We Were Never Lost” and “fabricated an association between the Israeli crew to separatist movements in Southern Nigeria likely in order to gain more publicity.

“Nigerian government ‘suspected’ the team and took them into custody by over a dozen DSS men with black ski masks at gun point. From the moment they were taken their phones and passports were stripped from them. and they were at no point of their detainment able to contact anyone,” they continued.

The Israelis said they were locked in a small cell with no access to showers or clean clothes, and “were interrogated and mistreated without ever officially being arrested or accused of anything. There were countless human and international violations that occurred, which can and will be discussed in depth at a later time.

“The three weeks in captivity has only fueled the team’s desire to tell the stories of the Igbo Jews and will continue working for them to get mainstream reception,” they noted.

Also, an elderly Igbo woman “Ima Lisbon” who is a leader of the Jewish community in Ogidi, was arrested by the secret police “and is still being detained in inhumane conditions.

“When they all arrived in Abuja she was separated from the team and kept in a different building,” they added.

One of the men entered Nigeria on a French passport, and the other two on American passports.

Their arrest came on the heels of the repatriation of IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, who in 2018 publicly declared that he “owed his survival to the state of Israel.”