Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!decvax!microsof!uw-beaver!tektronix!ucbcad!ucbvax!arens@UCBKIM From: arens@UCBKIM@ucbvax.UUCP Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Another peed into Israeli courts Message-ID: <169@ucbvax.UUCP> Date: Tue, 31-May-83 21:30:31 EDT Article-I.D.: ucbvax.169 Posted: Tue May 31 21:30:31 1983 Date-Received: Wed, 8-Jun-83 09:37:00 EDT Lines: 74 From: arens@UCBKIM (Yigal Arens) Received: from UCBKIM.ARPA by UCBVAX.ARPA (3.341/3.31) id AA04067; 31 May 83 21:30:18 PDT (Tue) To: net-politics@BERKELEY >From Ha'aretz, May 17, 1983 Punishment Increased for Jewish Students Who Assaulted Arabs ============================================================ The Supreme Court yesterday increased the sentences of four Jewish students from Haifa who assaulted two Arab students at the Technion, and fined each one of them 10,000 I.S. [$220], five times more than the original fine levied by the Haifa district court. The court left unchanged the suspended 6 to 9 month jail sentences given to the attackers. [Such a sentence will be served only if these people are convicted of another attack within a fixed period of time --YA]. On October 2nd, 1981, 4 youths, Parzun Parashek, Shmuel Bobrov, David Kadosh, and Arie Mrassis, all college students from Haifa and members of "YESH -- Our Israel" movement, conspired to assault two Arab students who lived in the student dormitories of the Technion, and who were known as extremists, supporters of the PLO. They prepared wooden clubs, nylon stockings to cover their faces, and gloves, and in the early morning they broke into the housing unit of the two Arab students, beat them and the girlfriend of one of the Arabs, who was also present. One of the Arab students suffered severe injuries, and the other two were also injured. Two of the four Jewish students actually took part in the assault, and the other two aided them. The district court in its decision found that the background for the case was continued taunting by the PLO supporting Arab students of their Jewish colleagues. The district court judge forcefully denounced the attackers acts, but refrained from sentencing them to actual time in prison, citing their law abiding past, their positive character [?? -- YA], and the fact that they had fulfilled their obligations to the state [i.e. Had served in the army -- YA]. The judge had also been convinced that the attackers showed true remorse for their actions and wouldn't repeat them. The defendants were fined 2,000 I.S. [$44 -- YA], and were given a suspended jail term of between 6 and 9 months. The prosecutions appealed to the supreme court, arguing that in this case the need to publicly denounce such acts, and to deter others from committing acts of violence because of opposing views, should have prevailed over consideration of the personal circumstances of the defendants. The defense attorney argued that in this case there were provocations on the part of the assault victims, and that the defendants had suffered considerably as a result of their conviction. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Yitzhak Kahan, and Justices Shlomo Levin and Eliezer Goldberg decided to accept the state's appeal. They stated that the defendants actions deserve actual imprisonment, but that the court does not, as a rule, make the punishment more severe when the defendant has been shown clemency by the lower court. "Our position, that the sentence given by the district court was overly lenient and should not be considered a precedent for punishment of such crimes in the future, will be expressed by our increasing the fines levied upon each of the defendants", the justices emphasized. [For an idea of what *is* considered a serious crime in Israel today, compare this to my submission from a couple of weeks ago, where 13 year old Arab girls were sentenced to fines of $1750 - $2000 for throwing rocks at an Israeli car. -- YA] Yigal Arens UC Berkeley