Adalah to President Shimon Peres: Amnesty for Police Officer Shahar Mizrahi Creates Justification for Using Lethal Force against Arab Citizens

25/01/2012

(Haifa, Israel) On 18 January 2012, Adalah sent an urgent letter to Israeli President Shimon Peres urging that he not grant amnesty to police officer Shahar Mizrahi. Officer Mizrahi was convicted for the 2006 killing Mr. Mahammoud Ghanayim, a young Arab citizen of Israel from Baqa al-Garbiyyah. Adalah Attorney Rima Ayoub, who sent the letter, noted that granting amnesty gives justification to use deadly force against Arab citizens of the state. The letter follows a statement by Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch that during the "Celebration to Honor Police of Israel" he asked the Minister of Justice Yaakov Neeman to request amnesty from the President.

The Haifa District Court sentenced Officer Mizrahi to 15 months in prison. Upon Officer Mizrahi's appeal, the Supreme Court doubled his prison sentence to 30 months to send a message to police officers that when human life is at stake, the police are not above the law.

Haifa District Court Judge Menachem Finkelstein ruled in his verdict against Mizrahi that "The defendant [Mizrahi] was not in a life-threatening situation when he shot the deceased. His main goal was to prevent the deceased from fleeing. Even when the car was turning, and put the defendant in a kind of danger, the situation was far from life-threatening. There was never any danger of being run over or immediate danger to the defendant's life. Therefore there was no justification for shooting the deceased in the head at close range."

In the letter, Adalah Attorney Ayoub argued that the unqualified support for officer Mizrahi from senior police officials, organizations for the rights of police, and the Minister of Public Security has led to a dangerous disregard for the severity of Mizrahi's actions and his conviction. "Nothing has been said about the need for police to draw lessons on repeated illegal weapon use, or the need to respect the lives and bodies of citizens. The state's response will decide the result," wrote Attorney Ayoub.

In July 2010, following the unprecedented criticism by the heads of the law enforcement system in Israel and government ministers against the Supreme Court's decision even before Officer Mizrahi entered prison, former Adalah Attorney Abeer Baker wrote a detailed letter to the Attorney General and the Minister of Justice. The letter requested that the ministers not support a request to pardon Mizrahi. The state responded to the letter by stating that, "Some of the statements and publications in the wake of the Supreme Court decision have exceeded the bounds of legitimacy and are disconnected from facts and findings in the verdict. As for some of the findings in the verdict, there is no disagreement."