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Dr. Ghassan Khaled’s trial : A “hostile witness”


Dr. Ghassan Khaled’s trial: Today at the Salem military court

By Dr. Anat Matar
8/25/2008


Today at court we witnessed the continued episode of the case of Dr. Ghassan Khaled.

Present at the hearing: Yehudit Keshet, Hava Halevy and me (Anat), two observers from the Ecumenical Church, Abu Azzam (father), his wife Sihan, Gassan’s wife Leena and his little kids. At. Abid defended Ghassan. The judge was Major Yariv Navon.

The hearing today focused on the testimony of Abed El Nasr Khalim Kharaz, an ex Engineering student at A-Najah university. The examination in chief revolved around one and the same point several times: an attempt to extract from the witness a testimony according to which he is a member of Kutla-Islamia (the Hamas’ Students Movement), and that he was elected as its representative at the students` council.The attempt failed time and again.

It must be mentioned that the witness is currently detained upon this pretext. Thereupon the judge warned him that his replies might incriminate him, and he had the right to remain silent, because his trial has not ended yet. The prosecutor, on the other hand, leaped forward and declared that the testimony will not aggravate his condition however it will not grant him any benefits either. So following three-four rounds of repetitive questioning and identical replies, in which the witness was confronted with his initial testimony at the police, he was declared a “hostile witness”, due to the fundamental conflict with that supposed “confession” (according to which he was a member of Kutla-Islamia). The relations between the witness and the defendant were barely discussed if at all.

Only during the counter examination, attorney Mohammed Abid finally raised the issue of the incentive for summoning Kharaz as a witness: As may be recalled from previous reports on the Shabak episode, an investigator called “Doron” reported that supposedly Kharaz incriminated Ghassan Khaled in channelling a specified funding to student members of the Kutla-Islamia: well, strange enough there was no mention of this in the original interrogation report, although this “fact” constituted the pedestal of the prosecution’s claims. The witness now clearly stated that he had never uttered anything of the sort in his Shabak interrogation nor elsewhere! Therefore that person called “Doron” was added to the prosecution’s list in spite of the objection by At. Abid.

So those were the basics of the plot. The court hearing was overstretched; the judge had difficulty in restraining his a-priory bias towards the prosecution - which was ill prepared - and his impatience with the defense. On the other hand, it was quite clear to anyone in his right mind that the prosecution possessed nothing of substance in its hands. The witnesses due to appear at the next hearing will be primarily police officers and the above mentioned Shabak interrogator .

The following session is scheduled to mid-October, since, as it is well known, there is no rush “because the defendant in this case is not formally detained ”, and the fact that he is currently imprisoned under an “administrative detention” decree is entirely irrelevant... The administrative detention is due to phase out by October 2nd, however nothing is known for now about the Shabak’s intentions to extend it.

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