Detention Extensions, Ofer Military Court, court room no. 7April 6, 06Observers: Michal Z., Hagit S. (reporting)During a previous observation at the Russian Compound Military Court we observed the same Judge, Meir Ostriecher. I don’t remember hearing the same sort of pearls of wisdom pour forth from his lips that we heard during this session. Please note later in this report. The prosecutor who is serving one month reserve duty is having trouble organizing the files. The translator helps him organize the material and the judge helps him find what the prosecution is demanding. Others present in the courtroom are, as usual, the typist, four or five security men, groups of three or four relatives of a few of the prisoners, prisoners who are brought in cuffed at the feet, sometimes in pairs and sometimes alone. During the 100 minuets we observed in the courtroom 27 prisoners were heard. During many precious minuets the court was busy searching for files, in an attempt to identify a prisoner whose file contained two separate identities, quandary as to weather the prisoner in the court room is the same prisoner whose photograph appears in the file, and in anticipation of a lawyer who never appeared. Five prisoners were represented by the Lawyer Alia Tidori who pleaded against extension of detention in each case. One of these was released on bail (I didn’t hear the details) “on the condition that he not visit at university and not approach the mosque”. Another, who is suspected of membership in Ostra (a unit in the Hamas) denies the charges. He was incriminated by two prosecution witnesses, one who was drafted him into the unit and another who was a member of the same unit. The lawyer pleaded his case and the judge ordered detention until completion of procedures and allowed the lawyer to “read the grounds for arrest if he should see fit to do so”. The following three prisoners, residents of Biet Fagar, are also suspected of “membership”. There is a discussion as to the amount of bail to be posted. The prosecution demands 6000 shekel and the lawyer manages to lower it to 5000 shekel. The amount of 3000 shekel is demanded of the second and the third 5000 shekel, the amount to be paid within 5 days. The prisoners don’t agree, they don’t have such amounts of money. The judge jokes, “let them do fund raising drive in the village”.Lawyer Mandi El Asir represents a man who is suspected of shooting on the army. The prisoner admits he shot, but claims it was by accident, that the bullet went off accidentally. The informant claims it was not by accident by on purpose. The lawyer says: “the suspect is a Palestinian policeman and holds arms legally.”The judge interrupts: “Rabin really did give them arms, after Oslo they got arms from Israel and this was a mistake. What trouble (Rabin) has caused us.”Another prisoner refused legal counsel and requested to represent himself. In a highly emotional tone he says, “I want the captain from the secret service to come to the courtroom and look at me directly in the eyes and whatever he says I will accept, even life in imprisonment. The Secret Service is putting very heavy pressure on me or I shall die. The judge says that in his case a lawyer could really helps and recommends the lawyer present in the room, Natzer Nuvoni.The twenty remain cases were handled automatically. Each case was heard for one or one and a half minuets. All were young men from Biet Omar who were arrested at different times during the (recent) month of March for throwing stones and Molotov cocktails. The weary judge said: “photocopy all these sentences—they are all the same, the same witnesses, the same incriminators”. He said this ironically, out of fatigue and boredom but he raised not one single doubt as to their authenticity. All the young men denied the charges and claimed that they did not know the people who incriminated them. Their lawyer, Natzer A-Dimir, met these prisoners for the first time in the court room. He requested a few days postponement of the hearing so that he could learn the facts of the case. He said he could not get a copy of the file because the photocopy machine was not working. The detention was extended for another 6 days for those whose sentence was already prepared. For those who sentence was not yet made, an extension of 6 days was granted upon the request of the prosecutor for preparation of the indictment.