The Central District Court on Sunday released on bail the accomplices of a Kfar
Kasim resident accused of murdering Yishuv Sha’arei Tikva security guard Lior
Farhi.
Hamad Perigaal Badui and Rushdie Raba’a were already out of full
police custody and only under house arrest.
Sunday’s ruling meant that
they no longer had general restrictions on movement, although they were still
prohibited from leaving the country and had to deposit NIS 10,000 and sign a
commitment for another NIS 25,000 to the court to guarantee their attendance at
court hearings and compliance with court rulings.
The state had argued
that because Badui and Raba’a are accused of helping Arka’an Badir, the main
defendant in the case, of trying to obstruct the investigation, they were likely
to try to continue to obstruct the investigation if freed from house
arrest.
While recognizing Badui and Raba’a’s prior conduct as
significant, the court eventually held that, in order to maintain them under
house arrest for the whole case, the state would need to have demonstrated a
concrete suspicion about current obstruction of justice, not just estimations
about their general character.
The court also noted that unlike another
accomplice Ala’a Sirsur, they were less involved in efforts to obstruct justice
in the case.
The Central District Attorney’s Office filed an indictment
against Badir and the three accomplices on September 27. The indictment stated,
among other things, that Badir had intentionally run over Farhi with a car while
trying to escape capture for ferrying Palestinians illegally through the West
Bank fence area. It also said that the other three defendants had tried to help
Badir cover-up the crime after the fact.
In previous hearings, the state
presented evidence that the other accomplice, Sirsur had spoken by telephone and
in-person about how he would help cover-up Badir’s crime.
Sirsur’s plan
was to claim that his car, the one Badir was driving when he ran over Farhi, had
been stolen.
Sirsur even drove to the police station to file a false
report to lead the police away from catching Farhi, only to be arrested upon his
arrival at the station.
According to the state, Sirsur’s plan was a
premeditated and well-planned cover-up, far graver than merely spontaneously
lying to police about some facts during an interrogation.
In contrast,
Badui and Raba’a were involved in driving Badir, but did not even know at first
about Farhi’s death. When they learn of it they did not turn Badir in, but they
also did not try to further assist him in obstructing the
investigation.
According to the indictment, on September 9, Badir was
waiting near the West Bank security barrier to shuttle Palestinians who had
illegally breached and crossed through the fence to Kafr Kasim. Each passenger
was due to pay Badir NIS 50 for ferrying him from the border fence.
Farhi
and other security personnel were checking Palestinians’ documentation at the
nearby checkpoint at the entrance from the West Bank to Israel.
The
indictment alleges that Farhi and some of the personnel noticed Badir’s car
waiting suspiciously next to a portion of the fence, which they correctly
deduced had been breached.
They approached Badir, who had already loaded
a number of Palestinians who were crossing through the breach in the fence
illegally into his car.
When Badir saw the security forces approaching he
started to pick up speed with the aim of evading capture, reaching 73 kilometers
per hour.
Farhi blocked his path of escape and pointed his gun at Badir’s
vehicle to force him to stop, the indictment said.
In response, Badir
accelerated and continued in Farhi’s direction, eventually hitting him and
sending him flying 64.5 meters.
Farhi was killed by the
collision.
According to the indictment, Badir fled in his car in a bid to
escape until he crashed into a road sign. Afterwards, Badir and his three
Palestinian passengers continued their escape on foot.