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Monday, August 26, 2002
ISRAELI LAWYER REQUESTS PERMISSION TO REPRESENT "COLLABORATOR" IN GAZA COURT

ISRAELI LAWYER REQUESTS PERMISSION TO REPRESENT "COLLABORATOR" IN GAZA COURT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 26, 2002
ISRAELI LAWYER ASKS PALESTINIAN JUSTICE MINISTER TO REPRESENT ACCUSED
COLLABORATOR IN P.A. COURT

Tel-Aviv attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner has petitioned the Palestinian
Authority's Minister of Justice for permission to appear in the Gaza
security court to defend an alleged Palestinian "collaborator." In a letter
addressed to the Minister, Ibrahim Abu Daghmeh, at his Gaza bureau,
Darshan-Leitner has requested that she be authorized to travel to Gaza City
and provide legal representation for Akram Mohammed al-Zatma, who was
arrested over two weeks ago by Palestinian preventive security forces.
Al-Zatma, 22, is accused of assisting Israeli military forces in their
targeted killing of Hamas and Fatah leaders. The letter noted that
Palestinian lawyers in Gaza were too fearful of Islamic militants to appear
on behalf of al-Zatma and that the serious charges leveled against him carry
a death penalty.

On July 4th a car driven by Jihad al-Omarayn, a senior Fatah terrorist
sought by Israel, exploded in Gaza City. The car bomb killed al-Omarayn,
his body guards and his nephew. The Palestinian preventive security forces
in Gaza quickly labeled the bombing of the Fatah leader an assassination by
Israel's Shin Bet. On July 22nd Israeli air force planes dropped a powerful
explosive on a Gaza City apartment building where Hamas mastermind Salah
Shehade had been hiding. The explosion collapsed the building, killing
Shehade, his family and several civilians.

In the aftermath of the two attacks the Gaza Preventive security service
claimed that Palestinian collaborators had assisted Israel in the killings.
On August 8th, Preventive security agents under the command of Colonel
Rashid Abu Shbak arrested al-Zatma and accused him of having guided Israeli
forces to the two terrorist leaders. At a press conference in his Gaza City
headquarters on August 22nd, Abu Shbak alleged that al-Zatma, a student from
the Southern Gaza city of Rafah, had been recruited by the Shin Bet in July
2000 and had been providing Israel information for over two years. Abu
Shbak claimed that the student had been assigned to live in Gaza City and
report on the activities senior Palestinian terrorist leaders. According to
the charges made by the Preventive security service leader, al-Zatma was
the one who made the telephone call to the Shin Bet which confirmed Shehade'
s location in the Gaza City apartment shortly before the IAF carried out its
bombing. He also accused al-Zatma of responsibility for the al-Omarayn car
bombing in July.

In attorney Darshan-Leitner's letter she notes that the hostile mood in the
Palestinian Authority, which has grown increasing violent in recent days,
"would prevent al-Zatma from receiving even the vestige of a fair public
trial before a Gaza military tribunal." Moreover, she notes that Hamas
leaders have already ordered al-Zatma's death and that Palestinian attorneys
and judges would be afraid to oppose the Islamic terrorist group "in its
demand for al-Zatma's head." As such, the letter concludes, "only a lawyer
from outside the Palestinian Authority would be effective in providing a
Palestinian accused of collaborating with Israel, and charged with a capital
offense, the measure of zealous representation he deserves."

Darshan-Leitner warned the Justice Minister that refusing to provide
al-Zatma with an adequate legal defense and convicting him in another "sham
security court proceeding" would evidence to the international community
that the Palestinian justice system is still intimidated by Hamas and
incapable of proving fair and impartial trials to those accused of capital
offenses.

In December 2000 Darshan-Leitner filed a similar petition with the former
Justice Minister, Freih Abu Meddein, on behalf of another accused
Palestinian collaborator, Alan Bani-Odeh. The Israeli lawyer's request to
defend Bani-Odeh who was accused of assisting the Shin Bet in the targeted
killing of a Hamas bomb maker in Nablus was denied by Abu Meddein. Shortly
afterwards, a Palestinian security court sentenced Bani-Odeh to death in the
course of a ten minute trial during which masked Hamas gunmen roamed the
court room. Shortly afterwards Bani-Odeh was brought to a Nablus public
square and executed by a Palestinian firing squad.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: 972-8-973-3336 or nitsanad@zahav.net.il

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