Award to Petah Tikva murder victim's family follows ruling of police negligence; police had initially refused to search for missing woman.
By JOANNA PARASZCZUKJustice gavel court law book judge 311(photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
The family of Inbal Amram, a 21-year-old Petah Tikva woman murdered by a Palestinian car thief five years ago, is to receive over NIS 3 million in compensation from the state.Judge Hila Gerstl of the Central District Court issued a ruling on Wednesday confirming the compensation agreement after Amram’s family reached an out-ofcourt settlement with the state the previous day.Wednesday’s ruling ends a four-year court battle conducted by Amram’s family.They filed a civil suit in 2007 against police and the Public Security Ministry, arguing that police had acted negligently and thus failed to prevent her murder.The family had contacted police shortly after Amram failed to return home one evening in March 2006.However, Amram’s family had complained that after they reported the young woman as missing, the police refused to look for her or to try to locate her via her cellphone, despite the family begging them to do so.The police only began to search for Amram the morning after her disappearance, but were too late to save her life.The young woman had been abducted from the parking lot outside her Petah Tikva home by Muhammad Jaidi, a 20-yearold Palestinian from Kalkilya.She had surprised Jaidi as he tried to steal a car from the lot.After attacking Amram in the parking lot, Jaidi forced her into the stolen car and drove her to a open area.There, Jaidi stabbed Amram repeatedly before fleeing the scene.Amram died from her wounds the next morning, a few hours before police arrived.Jaidi was later caught and sentenced to life in prison for murder. Although that chapter of the story was closed, Amram’s family decided to file a civil suit against the police and the Public Security Ministry for negligence for failing to do everything possible to save her.In August 2010, Gerstl ruled that the police had indeed been negligent in relation to Amram’s death.The Amram family argued that the police should have taken more steps to save their daughter, including searching for her using signals from her cellphone.During that trial, the Amram family had presented evidence showing that Amram had not died before 6:30 the morning after she was abducted. They argued that, had police acted as they had been expected to do, they could have located Amram before 5 that morning, and thus prevented her death.The Amram family had also argued that the L.Greenberg Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir had refused to give them samples from Amram’s body after her autopsy.In ruling the police negligent, Gerstl had ruled that there was “a causal connection between police conduct and Amram’s death.”Following that ruling, the Central District Court suggested that the sides go to mediation over the issue of compensation.On Tuesday, the family reached an agreement with the state over compensation, at the recommendation of the mediator, attorney Yossi Shemeshi.They applied to the Central District Court to confirm that settlement on Wednesday.Amram’s father, Hanania Amram, said in an interview with Army Radio on Wednesday that the police officers involved should be punished.“It’s a very painful subject, and there’s nothing to celebrate.I hope that it changed something in this country. It at least is a memorial to Inbal,” Hanania Amram said in reference to the compensation agreement.Under the terms of the compensation settlement, the Amram family has waived the rights to make additional claims.The State Attorney’s Office said in response to the settlement agreement that the state had agreed to the compensation in light of the “tragic circumstances of the case.”“The agreement reflects the potentials and risks of further case management or of further appeals,” Justice Ministry spokeswoman Michal Shapira Gat said.
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