The trial of the accused in assassination of the political critic Nizar Banat has been postponed
The trial number 23d for the accused in assassination of the political activist Nizar Banat held yesterday in the military court in Ramallah, noting that he was killed in early morning of 24th, June 2021, after being beaten excessively by Palestinian Security Forces, with batons and pepper spray while he was asleep to arrest him for practicing his right to critisize and free speech earlier in his life. The trial held with attending of all the 14 accused in this case and the defense lawyer, in addition of group of local and international Human Rights organizations, with absence of the victim’s family and their lawyer, after they have declared boycotting the trial procedures for suspicion of the court integrity and seriousness, when they got news about the accused in this case receiving facilities, that would allow them to leave prison to spend time with their families without a judicial decision to release them. Lawyers for Justice group attended the trial in the context of its work in monitoring the trial procedures in this case, the group also observes in this report the main terms about what happened in the trial: The defendant’s attorney demanded to assign the Military Prosecution to offer rights to the accused in this case, like increasing the hours of the family visit, and offering other securities and rights they need. where the court replied that The Reform and Rehabilitation Law defined the controls for dealing with detainees, and the rights they have. The court has assigned the Military Prosecution to talk to the prison to ensure that the rights of the accused are provided in accordance of the law in this regard. The defendant’s attorney has requested from the court to talk to the Supreme Judicial Council and the General Prosecution represented by the General Attorney, to provide Military Court the criminal records for: Mohammad Majdi Mohammad Banat, Hussien Majdi Mohammad Banat, Imad Majdi Banat, and Mohammad Ismail Attieh Banat, in order to questioning the testimony of those mentioned before in front of the court in the case, the Military Prosecution objected to this request, then the court decided to reject the request of the defendants’ attorney in this regard, and asked the defendants’ attorney to bring the numbers of any criminal records in this regard. The defendants’ attorney has stated to the court that he could not bring the defense witnesses, because of the threats and defamation they were exposed to on social media, which made it impossible to bring them to testify in the court, because of their fear of those threats. The court responded to this allegation; Assigning the defendants’ attorney to submit an official letter to the court stating the names of the defense witnesses for the purpose of securing their coming to the court. At the end of the trial, the court decided to postpone it until 29/5/2022, pending on what was assigned to the defendants’ attorney.