Nabi Saleh protester to remain in jail despite lack of evidence

By Joseph Dana October 14, 2010 | Edit

Jamal Sameeh Yassin from the village of Beit Rimma was arrested more than three months ago in connection with Nabi Saleh demonstrations. He remains in jail without any evidence being presented in his trial to date.

Demonstrators in Nabi Salih During a Protest. Photo: Activestills.org/Oren Ziv
Demonstrators in Nabi Salih During a Protest. Photo: Activestills.org/Oren Ziv

Yassin was arrested from his home on July 13th, 2010, during a military night raid on the village of Beit Rimma, north west of Ramallah. He was arrested on charges of stone-throwing during a demonstration against illegal settlement expansion into Palestinian lands in the village of Nabi Saleh.

His arrest and the indictment filed against him were based solely on an incriminating testimony implicating a man named Jamal Smeeh al-Haj with stone-throwing during said demonstrations in Nabi Saleh.

Despite the faulty identification, Yassin’s denial of the suspicions against him and the fact that police did not even bother to look into the question of identification, Jamal was remanded until the end of legal proceedings in his case by the military court.

To this date, the witness who allegedly incriminated Yassin was not brought in front of court to testify, despite three different court sessions held in the case, in which the prosecution was given the chance to summon him.

Last Tuesday, during the 3rd hearing, the prosecution once more asked for more time to bring its witness in front of court, saying that due to operational restrictions, the subpoena issued by the court in the previous hearing could not be carried out. The prosecutor also claimed that a significant period of time will be need for the army to carry out the subpoena.

The defense lawyer, Adv. Nery Ramati pleaded that the defendant should not be the one to pay the price of the prosecution’s ill-competence, and that he should either be acquitted and released without condition or be released on restrictive conditions until a verdict in the case.

In a hearing that took place today, the judge, Major Tzvi Heilborn, decided to reject the defense’s request and grant the prosecution two more weeks to execute the subpoena. Jamal Yassin, meanwhile, remains in jail on account of an incrimination of dubious nature, which was not yet brought in front of the court, and without any other evidence against him.

Joseph Dana was a contributing writer on +972 Magazine from August 2010 to December 2011. This is an archive of his work.

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