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Palestinians charged for murder of Israeli minister
Two Palestinians have been formally charged in the Oct. 17 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, the first Israeli Cabinet minister ever killed by Palestinians.
Two Palestinians have been formally charged in the Oct. 17 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, the first Israeli Cabinet minister ever killed by Palestinians.
Neither is accused of pulling the trigger - prosecutors say they assisted the gunmen. In the Jerusalem District Court on Sunday, Mohammed Rimawi, from the West Bank village of Beit Rima, was charged with murder. Saleh Alawi, from east Jerusalem, was charged as an accomplice. The assassination triggered Israeli incursions into six Palestinian towns, a move hotly criticised by the United States. The charge sheet said Hamdi Koraan, from the West Bank town of Ramallah, shot Zeevi, and Basal Samer accompanied him. Koraan and Samer are believed to be still at large in Palestinian-controlled areas. The prosecution said Koraan, a member of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, recruited Rimawi into the organization with the offer of carrying out an attack on a prominent Israeli.
Rimawi, whose role in the operation, according to the indictment, was to aid the escape of Koraan and Samer, later allegedly enlisted Alawi and asked him to harbor the fugitives in his home in the neighborhood of Izzariya on the edge of Jerusalem. The charge sheet said Koraan and Samer fled from Alawi's house during the early hours of the morning following the assassination when they spotted Israeli security forces approaching the hide-out.
Alawi and Rimawi were captured, and during interrogation named the other members of the murder squad, police said. At Sunday's hearing they did not oppose a prosecution request to hold them in custody until the end of proceedings against them. No trial date was set. The PFLP claimed responsibility for the assassination as revenge for Israel's killing of its leader, Mustafa Zibri, on Aug. 27.
On October 24, Israeli troops stormed into Beit Rima seeking the assassins, killing six Palestinians during the incursion. A military officer said at the time that two of the many Palestinians it arrested during the Beit Rima raid were connected to the Zeevi killing, and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said one of the prisoners was the gunman's brother.
Bureau Report
Neither is accused of pulling the trigger - prosecutors say they assisted the gunmen. In the Jerusalem District Court on Sunday, Mohammed Rimawi, from the West Bank village of Beit Rima, was charged with murder. Saleh Alawi, from east Jerusalem, was charged as an accomplice. The assassination triggered Israeli incursions into six Palestinian towns, a move hotly criticised by the United States. The charge sheet said Hamdi Koraan, from the West Bank town of Ramallah, shot Zeevi, and Basal Samer accompanied him. Koraan and Samer are believed to be still at large in Palestinian-controlled areas. The prosecution said Koraan, a member of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, recruited Rimawi into the organization with the offer of carrying out an attack on a prominent Israeli.
Rimawi, whose role in the operation, according to the indictment, was to aid the escape of Koraan and Samer, later allegedly enlisted Alawi and asked him to harbor the fugitives in his home in the neighborhood of Izzariya on the edge of Jerusalem. The charge sheet said Koraan and Samer fled from Alawi's house during the early hours of the morning following the assassination when they spotted Israeli security forces approaching the hide-out.
Alawi and Rimawi were captured, and during interrogation named the other members of the murder squad, police said. At Sunday's hearing they did not oppose a prosecution request to hold them in custody until the end of proceedings against them. No trial date was set. The PFLP claimed responsibility for the assassination as revenge for Israel's killing of its leader, Mustafa Zibri, on Aug. 27.
On October 24, Israeli troops stormed into Beit Rima seeking the assassins, killing six Palestinians during the incursion. A military officer said at the time that two of the many Palestinians it arrested during the Beit Rima raid were connected to the Zeevi killing, and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said one of the prisoners was the gunman's brother.
Bureau Report