Man Charged with Poisoning Baby Food with Prescription Pills

A man identified as Yan Shamla has been indicted in Jerusalem District Court for allegedly lacing baby food jars with prescription medication and placing them on supermarket shelves, resulting in the poisoning of five infants. The indictment charges Shamla with multiple offenses, including the use of dangerous poison and assault of a minor or helpless person.

According to the charges, Shamla placed jars of baby food containing approximately 17 prescription pills or more into each jar onto shelves in two branches of a supermarket chain in Jerusalem. In one incident, a mother purchased a poisoned jar and fed it to her two young daughters, aged three and a half and eight months. Both children collapsed and were hospitalized for several days with severe benzodiazepine poisoning, at levels ten times the maximum normal range.

In another incident, three infants aged three years, 11 months, and three years were fed from a poisoned jar purchased from the same supermarket. They also suffered from confusion, drowsiness, instability, and loss of muscle tone, requiring hospitalization for severe benzodiazepine poisoning.

Following the incidents, all of the company's baby food products were removed from the supermarket, and additional poisoned jars were discovered. Two branches of the supermarket chain were subsequently ordered closed due to public health concerns.

The prosecution is seeking to have Shamla detained until the end of legal proceedings. Prosecutors emphasized the severity of the alleged crimes, noting the vulnerability of the infant victims and the potential for far more devastating consequences.