The Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court on Thursday fined Hadash chairman MK Muhammad Barakeh NIS 400 and also ordered him to pay NIS 250 in compensation to Yitzhak Hananyah, a right-wing demonstrator who he was convicted of attacking during a protest eight years ago.
MK Barakeh in the Knesset (Photo: Al Ittihad)
Convicted in March, the sentence was considered extremely light and did not include some harsher aspects requested by the prosecution. The lawmaker was acquitted of the more serious charge of striking a soldier from an undercover unit during another demonstration against the West Bank security barrier in Bil’in, west of Ramallah, nine years ago.
The two charges related to allegations that Barakeh tried to help break out of custody a Palestinian who had been arrested during a 2005 Bil’in protest and that he struck a counter-protester who was verbally accosting another demonstrator at Kikar Rabin in 2006 in a demonstration against the second Lebanon War. Originally, MK Barakeh was accused of four separate charges, but the other two charges – which involved forms of expression, including alleged verbal sparring with police – were dropped in October 2011. Following that decision, the court ruled in November 2012 that Barakeh would be brought to trial on the other two charges. The Bil’in protest was part of a series of regular protests against the West Bank security barrier. The Kikar Rabin demonstration was an anti-war protest during the Second Lebanon War.
Barakeh said the allegations against him regarding the Bil’in incident were impossible since he was injured by a stun grenade from the occupation forces and evacuated by an ambulance. Responding to the allegations against him in the Kikar Rabin incident, the Hadash MK claimed that at the time his elbows were locked with other demonstrators on both sides and that he would not have physically been able to hit anyone. The right-wing demonstrator said that Barakeh attacked him because of the witness’s verbal assault on veteran peace activist Uri Avneri. Barakeh said that the “claims are absolutely false” and said his role as a parliamentarian was not to sit in an “ivory tower,” but to be involved in the country’s ideological and political debates. After the conviction, Barakeh said the verdict “proved what we said at first, that this was a political trial against the activities and positions of a Communist and Arab member of the Knesset.”
Related:
MK Barakeh on the verdict: “This was a political trial”
Court decision in MK Barakeh’s political trial on next Sunday
Closing arguments in MK Barakeh trial: Police testimonies indicate case is fabricated
Film footage shown at trial confirms that MK Barakeh is innocent
Leading Communist Party member MK Barakeh again in court
MK Barakeh in court over 2005 and 2006 assault charges
Political trial against MK Barakeh officers threw stones at soldiers in Bilin
Criminal trial of MK Mohammed Barakeh begins
Tel Aviv Court to Hold First Hearing in Political Case against MK Mohammed Barakeh Tomorrow
