ISRAELI JUDGE REJECTS GOV'T PRESSURE TO CHANGE DECISION

Israeljustice.com

  JERUSALEM -- An Israeli judge has refused to succumb to pressure from the State Prosecution and police to change her decision and imprison a Jew indicted for attacking Arabs,  
    Jerusalem Magistrate Malka Aviv released to house arrest a resident of the Jewish West Bank community of Kiryat Arba near Hebron, despite pressure from the government to remand him into custody.  
    "I don't conduct the hearing according to the media's reactions, not even the international media's," Aviv said. "The police are bound by the conception that is portrayed in the media."  
    Zeev Braude, 51, a security guard, was filmed by the left-wing Israeli-Palestinian civil rights organization B'selem shooting at two Arabs after the violent eviction by special police units of 200 Jews from the Beth Shalom Pease House in Hebron on Dec. 4.  
    Braude was indicted in the Jerusalem's Magistrate's court on Dec. 10 despite the acknowledgement by Aviv that Braude was the victim of a lynch by Arabs in the area.  
    "It was clear from the film I saw that the lynch was carried out on the suspect who was lying on the ground helpless, while more Palestinians gathered to kick and beat him," Aviv said.  
    Aviv criticized the police for not arresting the Arabs who were filmed hurling rocks at Braude.  
    During the hearing, Aviv described Braude as a "respectable citizen" without a criminal record, who "happened" to find himself in a violent incident.  
    Immediately after Aviv released Braude to house arrest, attorneys from the state prosecutor's office and police offices barged into her chambers and demanded that she remand Braude into custody citing the high media coverage and international profile of the case.  
    Aviv rejected the plea so the state prosecutor's office appealed to the Jerusalem District Court which upheld Aviv's decision. Relentlessly, the state prosecution petitioned the Supreme Court. Supreme Court Justice Elyakim Rubinstein also rejected the appeal but tightened the house arrest and ordered Braude to be accompanied 24 hours per day.  
    Braude said he acted in self-defense but the indictment said Braude initiated the confrontation at the home of the Matriya family in Hebron. The indictment said that Braude aproached the house but when Hosni Matriya, 44, told him to leave, he shot him. Braude then allegedly shot Hosni's father, Abed El Hai, 67. Matriya sustained chest injuries and El Hai's arm was broken.  
    The swift indictment of Braude comes in the wake of statements by Defense Minister Ehud Barak urging law enforcement authorities to issue more severe penalties to Jews living in the West Bank, including evictions and administrative detention orders.  
    "We must be more severe in punishments meted out to lawbreakers in Judea and Samaria," Barak said.