Posted on 08/04/2003 1:16:59 AM PDT by yonif
The Justice Ministry and Israel Prison Service will publicize on the internet this morning the names of 350 Arab terrorist prisoners that the government has decided to release. The purpose is in accordance with a relatively new law that guarantees the rights of the victim of a crime. It will allow victims to find out that the terrorist who perpetrated "their" attack is being released, so that they may sue to prevent it if they so desire. The publication is to be made at least 48 hours in advance of the release.
This is not enough, say some terror victims - and the Terror Victims Association is suing in the Supreme Court not only for more advance notice, but also for the release of more details.
Atty. Ze'ev Dasberg, representing the TVA, complained to Arutz-7's Yosef Zalmanson, "We submitted the suit over a week ago, and only now, at the last minute, it's being heard." The petition will be heard at 1 PM today. Atty. Dasberg said that 48 hours is simply not enough time for citizens who were wounded - or whose loved ones were murdered - in a terror attack to learn that 'their' terrorist is being released and to sue in court."
The TVA is suing over the sparse amount of details the government plans to release. These will include only the terrorist's name, the court in which he was convicted, the clause on which he was convicted, and the length of his sentence. Atty. Dasberg says that this does not satisfy the requirements of the law guaranteeing the rights of the victim of a crime: "Let's say someone was seriously handicapped as a result of a terrorist bombing. If the publicized list states that so-and-so was convicted of 'membership in a terrorist organization,' but does not specify that he had driven the terrorist to the site of his crime in a specific place on a specific date, how are the victims supposed to know that the reference is to 'their' attack? We demand that the names of the victims be publicized, as well as the circumstances of the attack."
Yehudit Dasberg, whose life was totally changed as a result of a terror attack seven years ago, agrees. In June 1996, her daughter and son-in-law Efrat and Yaron Ungar were murdered by terrorists in a drive-by shooting, and Yehudit and her husband have been raising her two orphaned grandchildren - now 8 and 9 years old - ever since. She said that more information must be publicized in order to "increase the chances that the victim will know who is being released. A person might not recognize the name of the terrorist - but if the victim's own name is mentioned, then friends who hear will inform him, etc. It's also important to say the circumstances of the attack - such as 'roadside shooting near N'vei Tzuf' or 'the Kiryat Menachem bus bombing' and the like. This makes it easier to identify. It will even help the government ministers who have to approve the releases; after all, they don't know all the details of every single attack."
Avi Dichter, head of the General Security Service (Shabak), said last night that he objects to the release of additional terrorists, in light of the refusal of Abu Mazen and Muhammed Dahlan to fight terrorism. "Their fight against the terrorist infrastructures ended before it began," he said, noting that only the Shabak's intensive activities of the past few weeks - and not of the PA - prevented some major terror attacks.
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