Attorney General to Issue Decision in October 2000 Killings Cases On Sunday, 27 January 2008

Attorney Hassan Jabareen, the General Director of Adalah, and a legal representative of the victims' families, commented as follows: “We do not expect anything positive to emerge from the Attorney General's decision. We do not expect that someone who has remained silent for seven years and has not filed a single indictment to take any positive step forward. We hope that the joint work of the High-Follow up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, Adalah, the victims' families and the Arab political parties will respond decisively to the Attorney General's decision.”

Today, 24 January 2008, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz informed Adalah that he is to issue his final decision regarding the filing of criminal indictments against police officers and commanders in the October 2000 killings cases on Sunday, 27 January 2008 in the afternoon. Attorney General Mazuz stated that Adalah's attorneys will be able to read the report two hours prior to its publication on Sunday. The High-Follow up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, the Committee of the Victims' Families and Adalah will hold a press conference on Sunday in Jerusalem.

The Ministry of Justice's Police Investigations Unit (“Mahash”) issued a report in September 2005 in which it decided to close all the investigation files against police officers and commanders implicated in the deaths of Arab citizens of Israel in October 2000 on the pretext of lack of evidence. Following the release of Mahash's report, and as a result of public pressure, the Attorney General decided to conduct a review of the decision, and to this end appointed a special investigatory committee within the State Attorney's Office to review the files.

At the time, Adalah argued that the decision to review Mahash's report within the State Attorney's Office lacked any integrity because the office is headed by current State Attorney Eran Shendar, who was the Director of Mahash during October 2000 and bears direct responsibility for the failure to open an immediate investigation into the police officers and commanders responsible for the deaths.

In October 2006, Adalah submitted a comprehensive report entitled “The Accused” to the Attorney General, in which it addressed the shortcomings and failures of the law enforcement authorities – first and foremost Mahash – in investigating the October 2000 killings. The report primarily exposes Mahash's negligent work and its failure to fulfill its duty to investigate the criminal offenses committed by police in October 2000. In addition, the report discloses how Mahash concealed significant facts from the public and issued a falsified report regarding the events.

For more information, see a special web-report on the October 2000 Killings