Ofer - Plea Bargain, Stone Throwing

Translation: Marganit W.

Judge: Major Meir Vigiser

Prosecutor: Captain Racheli Aviv

Defense: Atty. Aziz Abu Alnil

Defendant: Bilal Abu Srur – ID 948853460

See my earlier report on Bilal.

Bilal was arrested at a checkpoint near Jericho using a fake ID. This was the third time he was caught for the same violation. In the first hearing, his attorney (appearing for the first time in a military court) was overwhelmed by the court proceedings. This time he seemed more self confident, presumably because a plea bargain had been reached.

The penalty imposed on Bilal included a 2500 shekel fine and two and a half years suspended sentence (I could not hear for how long).

After the usual runaround with the voucher, Bilal’s brother and his best friend posted the bail. I hope Bilal was able to spend the evening with his family.

Niyad Muhammad Sa’id Saad – ID 854857711

Defense: Atty. Ihab Galid

Niyad is 19 years old. He is accused of throwing rocks at a public rally.

The judge decided on a 45-day detention. (I was unable to ascertain if this coincides with the time already spent in prison), 2000 shekel fine and four and a half months suspended sentence for 3 years.

The main argument for punishment was the difficulty to present evidence and the fact that Niyad suffers from epilepsy.

Information gleaned from conversation with defendant’s parents:

Iyad Jihad Hiyan, 16.5 year old from Umm-Salmona was walking with a friend at 1 AM last Wednesday. A military jeep pulled up and picked them up.

At 3 PM when the father found out that his son was missing, he went to DCO Etzion, but his son was not there. He was able to ascertain by phone that his son was at Kiryat-Arba police station, but he was not allowed to speak to his son.

The hearing was supposed to take place after the break, but I could not stay, so I asked the father for his phone number and I called him that evening.

The hearing was short; he was told to return on Thursday. The father reports that nothing was said in the hearing about why his son and his friend had been detained and what they were accused of.

There were other fathers and brothers of minors from Azariya and Abu-Dis.

One father explained to me that Israel just does not get it: when it puts youngsters in jail, it only inflames them and fills them with hate, so it should not surprise us that a few years later, those boys come to Tel Aviv with an explosive belt strapped to their body. I certainly get it.