Khaled Dasouqiby smuggled phones to security prisoner Ziad Qawasmeh, a convicted member of the Hamas terror group at Ketziot Prison.
By JOANNA PARASZCZUKPalestinian prisoners in Israel's Ketziot prison 311 (R)(photo credit: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)
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.
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