The Be’er Sheva Magistrate’s Court on Friday approved a plea deal for Reyes Rigo Servia, a 56-year-old Spanish national who participated in a Gaza flotilla, after she pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm and aggravated assault of a prison guard.
Under the plea agreement, Servia was convicted on a revised indictment and sentenced to 10 days in prison—already served since her arrest—along with a NIS 10,000 fine. The court also ordered her deportation from Israel, scheduled for Saturday.
Servia’s attorney, Hail Abu Garara, said his client had agreed to deportation from the moment she arrived in Israel, contrary to police claims.
During her court appearance, Servia told the judge she had been mistreated in custody. “They put me in a prison worse than what animals get,” she said. “They hit us, pushed us a lot. On the fifth day they attacked my friend, and I tried to protect her. They grabbed me by the head, and my glasses fell off.”
She added that the women were held in harsh conditions: “There were 14 of us in a cell meant for five. We weren’t given water, the food was rotten. They pushed us and hit us. I didn’t get everything I needed.”
Servia was originally accused of biting a female guard at Ketziot Prison on October 6, four days after the navy intercepted four vessels from the “Sumud” flotilla bound for Gaza. The initial indictment alleged that when ordered to enter her cell, she refused, lay down on the floor with another detainee, and resisted attempts by guards to move her. According to prosecutors, she bit a guard’s left hand, causing a visible bite mark and redness that required medical attention.
In the amended indictment, the biting allegation was replaced with the claim that she dug her nails into the guard’s flesh while resisting.
Prosecutors argued that Servia’s participation in the flotilla was illegal and deliberate, intended to breach Israel’s maritime borders. They said her behavior in custody demonstrated that she posed a high risk and showed no respect for the law.
“By her physical resistance and assault on the guard,” the indictment stated, “the defendant showed that the rule of law does not deter her and that she would not hesitate to defy court or enforcement authority orders.”
Earlier this week, the court had extended Servia’s detention, but the judge noted there was “significant merit” in her attorney’s claim that deportation was preferable. “However,” he said, “this consideration belongs to the prosecution and is not within the court’s discretion.”