The Beersheba District Court on Tuesday convicted a former lawyer of providing
services to an illegal terror group by smuggling cellphones and SIM cards to a
security prisoner in Ketziot Prison.
In 2009, at the time of the
offenses, Khaled Dasouqi was a practicing lawyer and member of the Israel Bar
Association, the court said.
According to the indictment, Dasouqi
smuggled the cellphones to Ziad Qawasameh, a convicted member of
Hamas.
In July 2009, Dasouqi arranged with the Prisons Service to visit
Qawasameh and three other prisoners in Ketziot. After entering the prison and
before the meeting, Dasouqi obtained three cellphones and two SIM cards to pass
to Qawasameh, the indictment said.
Once in the designated room where
attorneys are allowed to meet their clients, Dasouqi wrapped the cellphones in
paper and slipped them under a glass partition separating himself and
Qawasameh.
A closed-circuit TV camera in the prison meeting room recorded
Dasouqi slipping a package partially wrapped in white paper to Qawasameh before
leaving the room, the court learned.
Dasouqi denied the charges. He said
that when he entered the prison, prison security guards checked him thoroughly
and once inside the prison it was impossible for him to have received cellphones
to give to prisoners.
However, the panel of judges – Natan Zlotchover,
Baruch Azulay and Yael Raz- Levy – said that it would have been easy for Dasouqi
to obtain the cellphones because the fence separating the internal prison
compound is very close to the public parking area.
The judges said the
prosecution had proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Dasouqi had transferred
cellphones to the security prisoner.
The court convicted Dasouqi of
charges including conspiracy to commit a felony, providing service to an illegal
organization and transferring illegal items.