Mahane Yehuda stabbing not attempted murder

Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar; Photo credit: Honenu

Monday, July 12, 2021, 9:35 Jerusalem District Court Judge Avraham Rubin handed down a precedential ruling to two of the defendants charged with stabbing an Arab in the Mahane Yehuda Market at the time of Operation Guardian of the Walls. The ruling states that there is no prima facie evidence of an attempted murder, the crime which the Attorney General’s office tried to attribute to the defendants. Judge Rubin also determined that the prima facie evidence indicates a much more minor crime.
In an early state of the trial the court had already expressed their opinion in the case and reasoned that a much more minor crime than what the Attorney General’s office had stated in the indictment should be attributed to the defendants. Judge Rubin wrote that the attorneys of the two defendants claimed that there was no prima facie evidence against them concerning the crime of attempted murder and concerning the crime of premeditated aggravated assault “this is because they were not aware that Respondent 1 was carrying a knife. I am of the opinion that concerning this point there are certain grounds [for its validity], because there is no prima facie evidence in the investigative material that they knew that Respondent 1 had a knife.”
Later Judge Rubin expressed a reservation concerning the two defendants, because there is no evidence “of their carrying out an act of terror of attempted murder or premeditated aggravated assault.” The significance of this is that the judge determined that there is little chance that the defendants will be convicted of the crime of which the Attorney General’s office charged them, and that it is likely that the conviction will be of a lesser crime. The court sent the defendants to the parole board to consider their release to house arrest with an electronic anklet.
Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar, who is representing some of the defendants: “We welcome the court’s decision, which expresses the intolerable ease with which defendants are charged with serious crimes, putting them in great danger. In this case, my clients were charged with the crime of attempted murder. However the court ruled that there is no evidence, not of that crime and not even of the crime one degree lower, premeditated aggravated assault, but rather of a much lesser crime. Therefore we suggest that the Attorney General’s office be cautious and reserved when they file an indictment, and not to follow the public mood.”

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