-----Original Message----- From: Addameer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Addameer Mailings <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thursday, 11 March 1999 19:58 Subject: State Security Court issues a new death penalty sentence State Security Court issues a new death penalty sentence - 2 Palestinian youth shot dead during protests against the court decision 10 March 1999 Once again the State Security Court in Gaza issued the death sentence against Palestinian, Ra�ed Ahmad Al-�Attar, 25 years, accused of shooting Captain Rif�at Joudeh from Rafah. The conviction of Ra�ed was read during the last hearing of State Security Court on Wednesday, 10 March 1999 at 11 AM. The panel of the Court consisted of General Farid Qutob as the presiding judge, deputy generals Talal Abu Zeid, Salim Al-Wadiah and Isma�il Al-Shaf�ee, and Major Munjid Al-Rayyess. The court also sentenced, Muhammad Abu-Shamaleh, aged 25, to life imprisonment with hard labor and the Usama Abu-Taha, aged 24, to fifteen years with hard labor. Addameer Association in Gaza followed up all earlier public hearings and has several serious objections to the procedures: 1. The prosecutor could not prove that it was the defendant Ra�ed Al-�Attar who fired the gun. The six witnesses who testified against the defendants actually confirmed the position of the defendant as they admitted that none of them saw Ra'ed opening fire on Captain Rif�at. 2. There was no evidence introduced to the court which proved that the bullet that killed Captain Rif�at came out of Al-�Attar�s gun. 3. Judge Abdel Hay Abdel Wahed didn�t appear at the last hearing when the verdict was read. Instead, he was replaced by Deputy General Isma�il Al-Shaf�ee which contradicted the Basic Law, where a judge should participate in at least four hearings. Following the court�s reading of the verdict protests against the verdict spread around the city of Rafah. These protests turned into fights between the families of convicted and the family of late Captain Rif�at and resulted in murder of �Ala Jum�ah Al-Hums, 17 years, and Khamees Salaameh, 17 years, and the injury of three others by live ammunition. Addameer expresses its deep concern about these incidents and protests the unacceptable and unjustified use of force by Palestinian Security Forces. Addameer underlines the following: 1. We reconfirm our position against the State Security Court as it contradicts all internationally acceptable standards of Human Rights and the rule of law and does not fulfill the conditions of a fair trial. 2. We demand that President Yasser �Arafat does not approve the death penalty sentence. 3. We demand canceling death penalty in general from the Palestinian Law as it is not a deterrent. 4. There must be an immediate stop to the use of fire arms against civilians and Palestinian security forces need to exercise caution and self-restraint in order to avoid worsening the situation. Important Note: We hope that every person concerned with the rule of law, will send faxes to President Yasser �Arafat demanding that he not approve the death penalty and calling for an end to the State Security Court. President Arafat can be reached at this address: President Yasser �Arafat Head of Palestinian Authority Gaza Fax: +972-7-2822365/6 ______________________________________________________________________ ADDAMEER - Prisoners' Support and Human Rights Association Jerusalem, PO Box: 17338. Ramallah, West Bank. Tel: +972-2-2960446 Fax: +972-2-2960447 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: http://www.addameer.org/ ______________________________________________________________________ If you have received this message more than once, please let us know so we can fix it. If you wish to be removed from this mailing list, send a message with 'remove from list' in both the subject and the text area of your message. ______________________________________________________________________ ***** "Messages sent on the IWW-news mailing list are the opinions of the individual senders; they do not necessarily represent the views of the IWW. IWW-news is for posting information which is relevant to the struggle of the working class against our bosses. Visit http://www.iww.org/ for more information." To subscribe/unsubscribe from the IWW-news mailing list please send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" as the subject of the message. Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
