2 indicted in attempted murder of council head

Jatt residents charged with allegedly trying to assassinate leader in Arab village.

By JOANNA PARASZCZUK
Justice gavel court law book judge 311 (photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
Justice gavel court law book judge 311
(photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
The Haifa District Attorney’s Office filed an indictment in the Haifa District Court on Sunday, charging two men from the Arab-Israeli town of Jatt with attempting to murder a local council leader and his brother last October.
The indictment alleges that 26-year-old Samer Wated and 23-year-old Abdallah Jarrah attempted to assassinate Khaled Jarrah after he was elected to the position of council leader in Jatt, a village in the Triangle region, a concentration of Arab towns in the eastern Sharon plains. Samer and Abdallah had supported a rival candidate in the city’s election and planned to murder Khaled to prevent him from serving, the indictment says.
According to the indictment, filed by attorney Hadas Rozenberg-Shainert on October 19, 2011, a week after the elections, Samer and Abdallah decided to assassinate Khaled by shooting him with a semiautomatic pistol. At around 7 on the night of the shooting, the pair allegedly donned black balaclavas and drove to Khaled’s house, where the newly elected council leader was spending the evening with his brother Nihad and others. Samer and Abdallah parked their car in an alley next to the Khaled’s house, and while one of them stood guard near the car, the other took the gun and fired six rounds through Khaled’s screen door in an attempt to kill him. They then fled, the indictment says.
Khaled was hit by several bullets, which penetrated his right knee and his right thigh, shattering his right femur. His brother Nihad was hit by a bullet as it ricocheted off the wall.
Khaled was rushed to Hillel Yaffe Hospital in Hadera and then transferred to Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital for further treatment. He was discharged only a month after the shooting.
The district attorney filed a request along with the indictment, asking that Samer and Abdallah be remanded in custody throughout the legal proceedings against them.
Later on Sunday, Judge Ron Shapira of the Haifa District Court ruled to extend the remand of both defendants pending a further court decision.
The judge said that in the request, the prosecution had submitted a file of circumstantial and other prima facie (apparently sufficient) evidence, including partial eyewitness testimonies, which provided enough grounds for temporary remand.