Postponement of trial of alleged murderers of political and human rights activist Nizar Banat.
The trial of the accused in the case of the murder of political and human rights activist Nizar Banat was held at the Ramallah Military Court on Monday, 20-5-2024 During the trial, the defense counsel of all 14 previously released defendants, presented to the court witness Samir Abu Zarour, who’s retired since 2017. He was the head of the autopsy department of the Ministry of Justice. prior to his retirement in 2017. He represented the Independent Human Rights Commission in attendance at the autopsy of the late Nizar Banat following his murder on 24 July 2021 without participating in the autopsy. During the ongoing trial since September 2021, the court heard the testimony of the doctor and he was discussed by the defense counsel and the military prosecution. He also stated that he hadn’t applied for the examination, and what can be highlighted in this context is the assertion by the defense witness of the accused that the cause of death of Nizar Banat was due to an abnormal cause of death. In addition to determining the proportion of injuries on the dead person’s body by 21% of the body area, Distributed on the head, face and shoulder from the back, upper and lower limbs and back area, The witness also stated that these blows to the deceased’s body did not result to death, according to him. And the witness concluded that the cause of death, according to the autopsy committee, was caused by traumatic trauma resulting in death, the cause of death, from the witness’ point of view, was due to asphyxiation because of congestion in the face of the deceased, as described. At the end of the trial proceedings, the defense counsel requested to notice a witness and to be brought, and also requested that the next trial hearing be confidential, so that the testimony of the said witness would relate to national security, for that reasons, next hearing was postponed to 3.6-2024. In this context, Lawyer for Justice considers that the holding of the trial to be confidential contravenes the revolutionary Code of Criminal Procedure in force of 1979 and its amendments. Till here, Lawyers for Justice Issued in 21/5/2024.
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.