Israel Matzav

State prosecutor won't expunge Har Shefi conviction

On Saturday night, I reported on efforts to expunge the conviction of then-19-year old Margalit Har Shefi for failing to prevent the assassination of Yitzchak Rabin. As noted, the conviction was based on false testimony.

But Israel's Leftist State's Attorney's office is refusing to expunge the conviction.

The State Prosecutor's Office announced Sunday evening that it would not cancel the conviction of Margalit Har-Shefi for not preventing Yigal Amir from assassinating Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin in 1995. The announcement says there was no new reason given for a review of the case, following then-attorney general Menachem Mazuz's rejection of a similar request in 2008.

Current Attorney General Yehudah Weinstein disqualified himself from reviewing the case because of prior dealings with the Har-Shefi family.

YNet adds:

A statement issued by the ministry noted that Lador determined the request was identical to one submitted in 2008 to then Attorney General Menachem Mazuz who found no basis to declare a retrial.

There should have been a retrial in 2008 based on Ayalon's admission that he testified falsely. Because there wasn't one then, there won't be one now? We screwed up and therefore we're going to continue to screw up? Something smells rotten here.

JPost adds:

The request was submitted by Nohi Eyal, director-general of the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel, Orit Struk, head of the Human Rights Organization for Judea and Samaria, Yehuda Eliyahu, head of Regavim and Suzie Deem [should be Dym. CiJ], spokeswoman of Matot Arim.

Speaking on Kol Yisrael's law program, Din Udvarim, Deputy State Attorney for Special Tasks, Shai Nitzan said, "What we had here was a recycling of an identical request that was sent to the attorney-general two years ago. The attorney-general [Menahem Mazuz] rejected the request outright and wrote that there was no reason for holding a new trial for Har-Shefi. Now, others have submitted a request on the very same matter which is based on fragments of sentences of former heads of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) which had been published many years before. The state attorney rejected the request."

In their request, Eyal, Struk, Eliyahu and Deem referred to statements by Carmi Gilon and Ami Ayalon. They quoted Gilon as saying, "Dror Adani knew some of Yigal Amir's operational ideas but Har-Shefi did not." Ayalon was quoted as saying, "Har-Shefi did not know about Yigal Amir's plans."

Nitzan added that Mazuz had written, "These fragments of sentences do not in the slightest erode the full and detailed verdict handed down by three court echelons [i.e. the magistrate's court, the district court and the Supreme Court]."

Nitzan added that he could not understand why some of the newspapers [the afternoon dailies, Yediot Ahronot and Ma'ariv] had sensationalized the story. "There was no reason for such big headlines," he said. "There was no news here."

Nitzan also revealed that the request had been submitted more than a month ago, but was only leaked to the papers on the weekend before the anniversary of Rabin's assassination, which will be marked on Oct. 20. He refused to speculate on the timing of the leak, but said, "Everyone will understand in his own way the motives for the timing and interpret it as he sees fit."

Those who submitted the request urged Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein (who handed it over to Lador) to cancel the conviction "before Yom Kippur, as a form of request for forgiveness from Margalit for the injustice she suffered and the opening of a new page, and before the anniversary of the killing of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin."

Rabbi Yaakov Medan of Alon Shvut, one of the heads of Har Etzion Yeshiva, who was part of the initiative to cancel Har-Shefi's conviction, expressed dismay over what he called Lador's "unjust decision."

"This is not the first time we've requested this," he said. "We have been asking it for the past 11 years. I'm disappointed by the Israeli justice system that continues to evade the facts and won't deal with the case."

Go back and re-read my post from Saturday night. Are those partial sentences from Ayalon? Are they unclear?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:35 AM