Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti leaves Tel Aviv District Court after delivering closing arguments in his trial for his alleged role in terror attacks.
Posted on 10/01/2003 9:18:10 AM PDT by bedolido
The Shin Bet security service and the Ministry for Internal Security recently rejected a request by imprisoned Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti to meet with family members due to the fear that he would utilize the visits to pass instructions to associates involved in terror activities. In his closing argument at the trial for his alleged role in terror attacks that killed 26 Israelis, Barghouti declared it is "better to die than live under [Israeli] occupation."
The Shin Bet's decision came in response to a petition lodged by Barghouti and his Israeli attorney, Shamai Leibowitz, demanding that he be allowed to meet with his wife and his children, whom he hasn't seen since his arrest by the IDF in April 2002.
In May, Internal Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi extended by three months orders forbidding Barghouti to meet with his family, ynet reported. "There is reasonable suspicion that he will utilize these visits for activities that would endanger the state's security and the security of the public," Hanegbi wrote on May 20.
Hanegbi based his order on a Shin Bet report stating that Barghouti's imprisonment, while waiting for his trial, hadn't prevented him from continuing his activities and relaying instructions to associates outside the prison.
"Since his arrest and until he was placed in isolation, he continued to direct hostile terror activities from within the prison and maintained his connections with senior terror operatives outside the prison," according to a Shin Bet document dated May 8, ynet reported.
Since January 2003, Barghouti has been in an isolated cell in the Beer Sheva prison, while his trial has been conducted in Tel Aviv District Court. In his petition, Barghouti claimed that as long as no decision had been reached in the trial, he should be presumed innocent and allowed to meet with his family.
"The minister never defined what 'dangerous activities' might occur when Barghouti meets with his four young children," Leibowitz said, quoted by ynet. "The minister didn't explain what dangerous terrorist activities would be planned when Barghouti hugs his 12-year-old son and his 16-year-old daughter... after they haven't seen each other for a whole year."
"Better to die than to live under occupation" In his closing argument at the Tel Aviv District Court, Barghouti did not relate to the charges filed against him - including premeditated murder, accessory to murder, incitement to murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and participation and membership in a terrorist organization - and instead used the opportunity to slam Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.
"The Intifada was the Palestinian response to the violation of the Oslo Accords," Barghouti said. "In the first year of the Intifada, 581 Palestinians and 34 Israelis were killed. This was because the IDF is the army that claims to be the most moral in the world when, in fact, it is the least moral in the world. I want to remind the entire world that saw how the boy Muhammad Dura was killed while the soldiers sat and laughed.
"How can the Jews, who suffered and survived the Holocaust, allow themselves to resort to such insufferable and unacceptable means against another people?
"Today, three years have passed and I hope the Israelis have learned the Palestinian people will not yield to force," Barghouti said, referring to the three year anniversary of the start of the Intifada.
"Israel must decide: either it allows for a [Palestinian] state alongside it, or it becomes a binational state... I am proud of the Intifada. I am proud of the resistance to the Israeli occupation. We are a people like all other people. We want freedom and a state just like the Israelis... I am against killing innocents. But ... I am proud of the resistance to Israeli occupation. To die is better than living under occupation."
Barghouti also praised the letter of 27 IAF pilots announcing their refusal to fly operations in the Palestinian territories and called on the judges to declare their refusal to officiate at his trial. He also told the court he would "soon be released."
Barghouti's name is reportedly high on the list of Palestinian prisoners that Hizbullah is demanding be released in a possible prisoner exchange with Israel. Hanegbi and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom both stated that Barghouti would not be released as part of any possible prisoner swap.
"Barghouti is a murderer, and he is not the one who is going to be released. He is having a trial and we should let the legal system do its work," Shalom said.
"Mr. Barghouti made a mistake in not defending himself against the charges," prosecutor Devorah Chen said.
A verdict in Barghouti's trial is expected in November.
In a related story, a petition was filed yesterday with the High Court of Justice by Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Center, demanding that Barghouti be indicted for "crimes against humanity." Those convicted of the more serious offense are not eligible for clemency nor pardons and must serve their full sentences, IMRA reported.
Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti leaves Tel Aviv District Court after delivering closing arguments in his trial for his alleged role in terror attacks.
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