Yesterday, January 29, 2023, a trial session was held at the special military court in Ramallah for the 14 members of the preventive security, accused of killing the martyr Nizar Banat, the session was held in the presence of the entire ruling body, and in the presence of the fourteen accused who were previously released, their attorney, and a representative of the military prosecution. “Lawyers for Justice” group followed the session as an observer of the trial sessions of the accused in the case of the murder of activist Nizar Banat, and some colleagues and representatives of local and international human rights institutions.

Within the framework of the litigation procedures; The defense attorney presented his defense evidence, represented by an expert, who is a forensic doctor, head of the forensic medicine department in a hospital in Jordan, doctor (A.A.); Who submitted his report to the court, then he was discussed about this report by the defense attorney, the representative of the military prosecution, and by the court; he summarized in his report, “The cause of death of the deceased is due to heart and respiratory failure.” He added, “The cause of death is the health condition that the deceased was suffering from.” He commented on the forensic report, “What they found of the death result is not correct” 

The doctor (A.A) confirmed that his basis in constructing his report relied on the forensic medical report, the medical file of Nizar before his martyrdom, in addition to some papers and files that he received from the court.

In its role, the Military Prosecution objected to showing the medical report prepared by the expert, expressing that it is a structural and office report, and it did not rely on examination, and autopsy, and that the approved reports must be issued by the competent authorities, but the court added the report to the case file.

The observer of the “Lawyers for Justice” group made some observations during the session, which was initially represented by the expert detouring by answering some questions of the court and the prosecution, and answering them in general terms, the defense attorney intervened by adding some words or phrases to the expert’s answers, the presence of some terms in the report of the expert, who confirmed verbally that they are either wrong or not found in the medical dictionary, such as the term traumatic shock, The session was adjourned for 10 minutes, then he returned and said after the adjournment of the session, “The term traumatic shock exists only in the head and not in the rest of the body, and it does not apply to Nizar’s case, but rather what applies to Nizar’s case in the head is bruises” the defense attorney interrupted the court and the prosecution.

It is noteworthy that the session was adjourned to February 26, 2023, and was postponed to allow the defense attorney to decide whether he wishes to provide additional evidence or not. It is worth mentioning that today’s session started at 10:00 and ended at 1:45.

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January 30, 2023

Lawyers for Justice