Slain soldier's family demanding death penalty, boycott IDF court
The family’s lawyer, former IDF West Bank chief prosecutor Maurice
Hirsch, said that the call for capital punishment was intended to deter
further attacks on soldiers.
By Yonah Jeremy Bob
The family of St.-Sgt. Ronen Lubarsky, a commando in the elite
counterterrorism Duvdevan unit killed in May by Islam Yusuf Abu Hamid
during an IDF operation to arrest suspected terrorists in al-Am’ari
refugee camp near Ramallah, announced Monday that it will boycott the
trial taking place in the Judea Military Court because the court has
refused to consider the death penalty for the attacker.
Standing outside the court, Lubarsky’s family said that the court’s
decision not consider the death penalty was “an embarrassment and a
disgrace.”The family has accused “the judicial establishment of putting
itself above the political establishment,” and noted that in private
meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the IDF Military
Advocate General and other top defense officials, they were told no
complete ban is in place against the death penalty.The family’s lawyer,
former IDF West Bank chief prosecutor Maurice Hirsch, said that the call
for capital punishment was intended to deter further attacks on
soldiers.
Hirsch added Netanyahu expressed surprise that the IDF prosecution was
not seeking the death penalty and that, after meeting with him, the
family had expected the court to be more open to the idea.
During Monday’s hearing, Abu Hamid pleaded not guilty of murdering Lubarsky.
Earlier, Deputy Defense Minister Eli Ben Dahan and Science and
Technology Minister Ofir Akunis both issued statements favoring capital
punishment for him.
Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman has championed capital
punishment for Palestinian terrorists for years. To date, Netanyahu has
publicly sided with the legal establishment’s blanket opposition to the
death penalty.In July, the IDF West Bank prosecution filed an indictment
for murder against Abu Hamid for murdering Lubarsky.
Israel will continue to bring to justice anyone who attacks or tries to
attack Israeli civilians or IDF soldiers, Netanyahu said following Abu
Hamid’s arrest in mid-June.
“A Duvdevan soldier is the one who was killed, and Duvdevan is the unit that apprehended the terrorist,” Netanyahu said.
Lubarsky, from Rehovot, was seriously wounded when a marble slab was
dropped on his head during an operation to arrest a terrorist cell
involved in recent shooting attacks. The soldier, who was part of the
operation’s covering force, received initial emergency medical attention
in the field. Transferred to intensive care at Hadassah University
Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem, he succumbed to his wounds two
days later.
Anna Ahronheim contributed to this report.
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