Last update - 11:13 30/01/2005
Court rejects Tali Fahima's request to cancel indictments
By Zvi
Harel, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service
Tel Aviv District Court on Sunday morning rejected a request made by pro-Palestinian activist Tali Fahima to cancel a significant number of the indictments that have been filed against her.
District court judges accepted the prosecution's claim that Fahima's indictments were formulated based on entirely new evidence that had recently come to light.
She is charged with giving information to the enemy, having contact with a foreign agent, unlawful possession of weapons and supporting a terror organization.
Fahima was accused of translating and reading to Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades members sensitive material the Israel Defense Forces had lost during an operation in the West Bank city of Jenin in May 2004.
The state prosecution last Tuesday appealed to the Supreme Court against a decision to release Fahima from administrative detention and place her under house arrest.
The decision to release Fahima from administrative detention stemmed from the fact that among the Al-Aqsa Brigades members present while Fahima read the pamphlet, some could read Hebrew.
Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court Judge Zvi Gurfinkel ruled last Monday that the defendant's detention, which preceded her present custody, "has nothing to do with the facts appearing in the indictment, but pertains to other facts, which apparently justified her administrative custody."
He also ruled that the evidence against Fahima is not sufficient to justify detention.
Fahima has been under arrest for nearly six months.
In its appeal, the state prosecution said that "past experience and common sense show that anyone who speaks his mother tongue has a clear advantage in reading, understanding and transmitting ideas, over those who acquire that language."
"The fact that Fahima read the pamphlet without being asked to stop by the people present at that moment, and as long as the level of their Hebrew hasn't been proven, lead us to the conclusion that in reading she was in fact assisting the enemy," the appeal said.
The state prosecution wants to show that Fahima's arrest was necessary because "she was dangerous" due to "her acquaintance and devotion to the [Jenin Al-Aqsa Brigades] commander Zakaria Zubeidi."
Fahima entered the Jenin area in May 2004 in violation of a military order and stayed there for two weeks. She accompanied Zakaria Zubeidi, who heads the Al-Aqsa Brigades in Jenin and was on Israel's wanted list for terror acts, the indictment says. Zubeidi is described by the prosecution as a "foreign agent."
The defendant allegedly met Al-Aqsa activists and told the media she intended to serve as Zubeidi's human shield to prevent the Israeli security forces from targeting him.
IDF troops entered Jenin in May to arrest people on the wanted list and shoot armed activists, including Zubeidi, his deputy and two others. During the operation, a soldier lost top-secret material with details of the wanted men. Zubeidi's men got hold of the material and Fahima, who was allegedly in Zubeidi's house in Jenin at the time, read the material aloud, explaining what it said about capturing or killing the wanted men. There were also aerial photos showing the access routes to their homes.
Zubeidi allegedly ordered the wanted men to go into hiding, and the IDF troops failed to capture them. Fahima was also charged with violating a legal order by entering the territories after she had been released from custody. She was arrested while disguised as a local woman.