25 April - 1 May 2002
Issue No.583
|
Al-Ahram Weekly Online 25 April - 1 May 2002 Issue No.583 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Trial politics
Israel is still exploring the kind of court in which to try Marwan Barghouti, the leader of the Fatah organisation in the West Bank and a prominent symbol of the Intifada
"The West Bank Fatah-Tanzim leader should be tried in a civil rather than a military court," Israeli Justice Minister Meir Shetreet was quoted as saying only a couple of days after Marwan Barghouti's arrest.
Despite Israeli allegations that Barghouti was the acting head of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Palestinian officials reiterated that the man was never a military but a political leader.
Barghouti was a peace activist at a time when few Palestinians viewed peace talks in a positive light and considered them a viable option. But it was the Israeli abuse of the term peace that might explain his shifting from supporting peace negotiations to one of "operational resistance."
"This is the Intifada of peace," Barghouti said at the beginning of the Intifada in September 2000. "This Intifada will lead to peace in the end. We will bring the issues of Jerusalem and the settlements from the negotiating table to the Palestinian street."
According to the Israelis, the charges against Barghouti are numerous but the place and nature of the trial remains to be seen. It is mainly up to the attorney-general and the state attorney to decide.
In fact, Israeli law presents two options: the Penal Law or the 1945 Emergency Defence Regulations. The former is a civil court which cannot hand down a death sentence while the latter is a military tribunal and could condemn a defendant to execution. No trials have been held in the military court in the past year.
"From a political point of view at least," Shetreet said, "I think we have to put (Barghouti) on trial in a civil court, to try to present before the world all the evidence and documents regarding his activities. The effect of the trial is no less than the trial itself."
Barghouti, an elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, should not be tried in front of Israeli courts, given that "he has (diplomatic) immunity," said Gawad Boulos, Barghouti's lawyer.
Boulos, an Israeli Arab lawyer, believes that Barghouti will be tried before a military court. For his part, Boulos is coordinating a committee of "dozens" of local and foreign defence lawyers who want to defend Barghouti.
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
Recommend this page