Attorney-General Elyakim Rubenstein has decided not to indict the director of the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute, Prof. Yehuda Hiss. Rubenstein found that Hiss broke no laws in providing "expert testimony" about autopsies at which he had not been present, as in any event he saw the bodies and was familiar with the findings of the autopsies. A disciplinary complaint will be filed against Hiss, however.
More controversially, Hiss had been accused of various irregularities regarding autopsies and the use of tissues and organs. Although Rubenstein found that no autopsies were performed without permission from the families, tissues and organs were used for scientific study without the families' knowledge. Rubenstein said that Hiss should have ensured that this not be done, and that more sensitivity need be shown to the families, but that he need not be put on trial for this.
The Attorney-General stated that even if the Institute did not act properly, "there is no suspicion of corruption or profiteering on the part of Prof. Hiss, and the only interest he had was the advancement of medical research."
The grassroots Forum for Forensic Institute Victims is not happy with the decision. Spokesmen Yuval Porat and Ziv Barne'a said that it is a "pathological decision," as the Attorney-General has now "buried with his own two hands the rule of law in Israel." The two said that the decision contrasts with a Health Ministry investigation that found that Abu Kabir under Hiss' direction had "taken human organs and acted freely with them." The police agreed with the report, the Forum said, but "the Attorney-General preferred the interests of the 'establishment' instead of the rule of law, and has thus struck a blow at the public trust in the legal framework. If it had been a lower-level clerk, he would have been fired and put on trial for only 10% of what Hiss did."
Former Health Minister Nissim Dahan (Shas) expressed disappointment with Rubenstein's decision: "As someone who is familiar with all the details, I was sure that there was room for a criminal investigation." He said that there was at least one encouraging result, namely, that the questionable practices in the Forensic Institute will not continue.
In July 2002, while Hiss was under police investigation for suspicions including the removal of organs from 81 deceased persons without familial consent, the Supreme Court rejected a petition demanding his suspension. The petition had been submitted by the Movement for Quality in Government.
State Pathologist Hiss generally decides Israel's pathological-legal questions, and many people are in prison based on his findings. His professional standards have often been publicly maligned. In August 1999, Jerusalem District Court Judge Ruth Orr sharply criticized Hiss for testifying that a 12-year-old Arab rock-thrower died as a result of a beating by Beitar security chief Nachum Korman three years earlier. She wrote that Hiss "was carried away by his desire to find the exact cause of the death... and ignored important pathological findings that did not correspond with this desire."
In Oct. 1997, Margalit Omeisi filed a police complaint against Hiss, charging him with "violating the medical secrecy to which he obligated himself." Hiss released, without authorization, the results of a DNA test he carried out, purporting to show that Omeisi was not related to a woman from California whom Omeisi said was her missing "Yemenite child" daughter. Both Omeisi and her apparent daughter said they did not accept the results of the Hiss test, and that the method he used was not authoritative.
Hiss has also been the subject of controversy regarding the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin. The police were asked to investigate charges that Hiss altered Rabin's wounds and submitted false evidence to the Shamgar Commission. In March 1999, a group of Israelis presented findings by Barry Chamish showing that Dr. Hiss' pathology report contradicted other authoritative findings. Hiss stated that Rabin suffered no damage to his spinal cord, nor was he wounded by a frontal gunshot wound to the chest. But Dr. Mordechai Gutman's surgical procedures report, as well as taped testimony by Ichilov Hospital Director Dr. Gabi Barabash and former Health Minister Ephraim Sneh, indicate that Rabin's backbone was shattered and that there was a frontal chest wound.
More controversially, Hiss had been accused of various irregularities regarding autopsies and the use of tissues and organs. Although Rubenstein found that no autopsies were performed without permission from the families, tissues and organs were used for scientific study without the families' knowledge. Rubenstein said that Hiss should have ensured that this not be done, and that more sensitivity need be shown to the families, but that he need not be put on trial for this.
The Attorney-General stated that even if the Institute did not act properly, "there is no suspicion of corruption or profiteering on the part of Prof. Hiss, and the only interest he had was the advancement of medical research."
The grassroots Forum for Forensic Institute Victims is not happy with the decision. Spokesmen Yuval Porat and Ziv Barne'a said that it is a "pathological decision," as the Attorney-General has now "buried with his own two hands the rule of law in Israel." The two said that the decision contrasts with a Health Ministry investigation that found that Abu Kabir under Hiss' direction had "taken human organs and acted freely with them." The police agreed with the report, the Forum said, but "the Attorney-General preferred the interests of the 'establishment' instead of the rule of law, and has thus struck a blow at the public trust in the legal framework. If it had been a lower-level clerk, he would have been fired and put on trial for only 10% of what Hiss did."
Former Health Minister Nissim Dahan (Shas) expressed disappointment with Rubenstein's decision: "As someone who is familiar with all the details, I was sure that there was room for a criminal investigation." He said that there was at least one encouraging result, namely, that the questionable practices in the Forensic Institute will not continue.
In July 2002, while Hiss was under police investigation for suspicions including the removal of organs from 81 deceased persons without familial consent, the Supreme Court rejected a petition demanding his suspension. The petition had been submitted by the Movement for Quality in Government.
State Pathologist Hiss generally decides Israel's pathological-legal questions, and many people are in prison based on his findings. His professional standards have often been publicly maligned. In August 1999, Jerusalem District Court Judge Ruth Orr sharply criticized Hiss for testifying that a 12-year-old Arab rock-thrower died as a result of a beating by Beitar security chief Nachum Korman three years earlier. She wrote that Hiss "was carried away by his desire to find the exact cause of the death... and ignored important pathological findings that did not correspond with this desire."
In Oct. 1997, Margalit Omeisi filed a police complaint against Hiss, charging him with "violating the medical secrecy to which he obligated himself." Hiss released, without authorization, the results of a DNA test he carried out, purporting to show that Omeisi was not related to a woman from California whom Omeisi said was her missing "Yemenite child" daughter. Both Omeisi and her apparent daughter said they did not accept the results of the Hiss test, and that the method he used was not authoritative.
Hiss has also been the subject of controversy regarding the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin. The police were asked to investigate charges that Hiss altered Rabin's wounds and submitted false evidence to the Shamgar Commission. In March 1999, a group of Israelis presented findings by Barry Chamish showing that Dr. Hiss' pathology report contradicted other authoritative findings. Hiss stated that Rabin suffered no damage to his spinal cord, nor was he wounded by a frontal gunshot wound to the chest. But Dr. Mordechai Gutman's surgical procedures report, as well as taped testimony by Ichilov Hospital Director Dr. Gabi Barabash and former Health Minister Ephraim Sneh, indicate that Rabin's backbone was shattered and that there was a frontal chest wound.