An Israeli court issued a reduced and formal judgment on an Israeli officer, who killed a Palestinian fisherman, in 2018, which was 45 days in prison.
And the Israeli courts used to issue virtually negligible rulings against Israeli soldiers in the event of committing crimes against the Palestinians, as it had spent (30) days in prison (through military labor) against another Israeli soldier accused of killing the child Othman Rami Helles (14 years), according to Al-Mizan Center. For human rights.
Al-Mizan Center stated today, Monday, that the Israeli military court in Lod issued a reduced sentence on the fifteenth of this month, against an Israeli officer accused of killing the Palestinian fisherman Nawwaf Ahmad Al-Attar (23 years), a resident of Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza Strip, with a live bullet in the abdomen. While practicing his fishing career, on the 14th of November 2018, on the shore of Al-Sudaniya area.
According to the center, after a criminal complaint filed by Al-Mizan to the Military Public Prosecutor on 11/27/2018, supported by supporting evidence and eyewitnesses, the Israeli military police began investigating the incident on 7/4/2019 and summoned the victim´s brother on 5/13/19 2020 AD to the Beit Hanoun crossing, "Erez", to testify.
The aforementioned ruling included the actual prison sentence with the military action for a period of (45 days) in circumstances determined by the qualification authority official (the military police officer), and the suspended prison sentence of between two months and two years in the event that the accused committed a violation of the violations he was convicted of, or Violation on the basis of unlawful use of the weapon, and demotion of his rank to a soldier, for committing two violations of “deviations from powers to the point of forming a danger to life or health,” according to Article (72) of the Israeli Military Judiciary Law of 1955 AD, and “sabotage through negligence, According to Article (341) of the Israeli Penal Code of 1977 AD, after the Military Prosecutor on 2/6/2020 issued an indictment to the officer accused of killing the fisherman Al-Attar for violating the powers and materials mentioned, and the judgment was issued on 15/6/2020 AD.
The Center pointed out in a statement that after reviewing the merits of the judicial ruling, which shows the accused´s explicit confession to the commission of his crime, in addition to the evidence presented by the center to the military prosecutor in his pursuit of the victim´s access to justice, and the nature of the reduced sentence issued against the defendant who considered the murder a violation, which It is not commensurate with the seriousness of the crime, as well as withholding the date when the sentence began to be carried out from the agent and the victim´s family.
The center said, "The Israeli judiciary is proceeding with attempts to protect the Israeli soldiers from proper accountability and accountability, unfairness of the victims and reparation for their damages, and in an attempt to circumvent the principle of the integrated jurisdiction of the international judiciary, by opening investigations and conducting mock trials seeking to stop the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, given that The Rome Charter establishing it does not allow a person to be tried twice for the same crime under Article (20). However, paragraph (3) of it established two exceptions that enable it to retry the person, namely: if the national judiciary in its trial deliberately protects the person from criminal responsibility, or The trial was not conducted in an independent or impartial manner, and accordingly, Al Mezan Center affirms that the jurisdiction of the international judiciary remains in the mentioned case.
The Center affirmed that the right to life and physical integrity is guaranteed under international law, and that the occupation forces ’continued targeting of civilians constitutes a grave violation of the essence of the protection provided by international law to individuals without discrimination, and the judicial rulings of the occupying state and its orientation towards reducing the punishment for perpetrators of clear violations, Additional evidence of its failure as a system to meet international standards for judicial independence.
The Center referred to the ruling of the Israeli Military Court on 10/28/2019, against an Israeli soldier accused of killing the child Othman Rami Hilles (14 years) during the return march activities in the past year, in actual imprisonment for a period of (30) days (by military labor), and (60) days suspended execution and demotion.
Al-Mezan Center called on the international community to assume its legal and moral responsibilities towards the residents of the occupied Palestinian territories, and to urgently intervene to stop the grave violations by the occupying forces of international human rights standards and rules of international humanitarian law, provide protection for Palestinian civilians, and activate accountability and accountability tools in the occupied Palestinian territories.
