A Jerusalem court severely reprimanded government prosecutors Tuesday and ruled that national Itamar Ben-Gvir is not guilty of charges he is connected with terror.
He was indicted for allegedly supporting the Kach movement and Kahane Chai, designated by some officials as terror groups.
Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court Judge Alexander Ron chided the prosecutors for not providing adequate evidence and for destroying thousands of CDs, stickers, posters and other material that allegedly expressed support for terror. Destruction of material confiscated for legal proceedings violates a High Court decision that such material must be kept
He said the charges against Ben-Gvir were severe but that the prosecution did not match the accusations with evidence from two separate investigations. He said the evidence from the cases “got mixed up with each other” and was useless.
The prosecution tried to prove that there is a “chain of evidence” that supposedly incriminated Ben-Gvir, but Judge Ron said no such proof was presented and he even doubted whether the “proof” ever existed.
The judge scolded the prosecution on the issue of freedom of speech, declaring that “it would be best if the accuser [the prosecution] would be more careful with itself.” The indictments charged that the confiscated material included the slogan “Kahane was Right” and thus implicated Ben-Gvir with supporting terror.,
Rabbi Meir Kahane encouraged the idea that Arabs be told to leave Israel and live in Arab countries.