Military court acquits Palestinian murder suspect, criticizes settlers

[Classical_Liberal]

Military court acquits Palestinian murder suspect, criticizes settlers
By Arnon Regular

A West Bank military court last week acquitted a Palestinian accused of murdering a settler during a disagreement over land that erupted near the Havat Maon outpost in the Hebron hills in April 1998. The court also acquitted two other Palestinians of assault, and criticized the police and the army's prosecutors.
A three-judge panel of the military court absolved Ahmed Dabasa of the murder of 28-year-old Dov Driben. At the end of the 27-page verdict, court president Lieutenant Colonel Zvi Lekah wrote, "This was truly an unfortunate incident that was the result of conflict over land that deteriorated into spontaneous violence, during which the death of Dov Driben was caused and others were injured. As unfortunate as the incident was, it cannot be determined that the accused was criminally responsible."

Lekah also criticized the settlers, in what may be a precedent in the realm of settler-Palestinian relations: "The prosecution did not show that Driben and his friends operated within the authority of any law. They took the law into their own hands in their attempt to drive off the Dabasas. Dov and his friends were not policemen, and it appears that they were even not operating on their land."

Lekah also said that among the charges were elements that "had no connection with reality," and he called the Hebron police investigation "problematic and lacking in exposition of the truth." Included in the list of failures the verdict noted that no lineup of suspects was held to identify the attackers of Driben, Yehoshafat Tor and Ephraim Perl. Contradictions in the testimony of the accused and the victims were not explored, and no blood tests were conducted.........

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/462041.html