Fatah Tanzim terrorist leader Marwan Barghouti, a right-hand man of Yasser Arafat, was indicted this morning in a Tel Aviv District Court on charges of murder and related crimes.
Barghouti stood behind dozens of terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians since the beginning of the Oslo War almost two years ago. The charges against him include murder, aiding and abetting murder, attempted murder, criminal conspiracy, and serving as an active member in a terror organization. He was apprehended on April 15 at the height of Israel’s Operation Defensive Shield anti-terror campaign. Attorney-General Elyakim Rubenstein made a special decision to try senior terrorists captured during Operation Defensive Shield in civil, not military, trials, as a way of emphasizing the direct involvement in terrorism of the leaders of the Palestinian Authority.
The charge sheet specified that Barghouti "led, managed, paid for, and activated terrorist activities against Israeli targets using leading terrorist activists." Among the dozens of terror acts he oversaw were the following:
* The murder of six Jews during a Bat Mitzva celebration in Hadera in January 2002;
* A shooting spree on Jaffa St. in Jerusalem, killing two, Jan. 22, 2002.
* The murder of a Greek Orthodox monk on the road to Ma'aleh Adumim, June 12, 2001;
* The murder of a policewoman in N'vei Yaakov, a coffee company owner and philanthropist in Atarot, and three Israelis in a Tel Aviv restaurant - all in a ten-day period in Feb.-Mar. 2002.
Barghouti stood behind dozens of terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians since the beginning of the Oslo War almost two years ago. The charges against him include murder, aiding and abetting murder, attempted murder, criminal conspiracy, and serving as an active member in a terror organization. He was apprehended on April 15 at the height of Israel’s Operation Defensive Shield anti-terror campaign. Attorney-General Elyakim Rubenstein made a special decision to try senior terrorists captured during Operation Defensive Shield in civil, not military, trials, as a way of emphasizing the direct involvement in terrorism of the leaders of the Palestinian Authority.
The charge sheet specified that Barghouti "led, managed, paid for, and activated terrorist activities against Israeli targets using leading terrorist activists." Among the dozens of terror acts he oversaw were the following:
* The murder of six Jews during a Bat Mitzva celebration in Hadera in January 2002;
* A shooting spree on Jaffa St. in Jerusalem, killing two, Jan. 22, 2002.
* The murder of a Greek Orthodox monk on the road to Ma'aleh Adumim, June 12, 2001;
* The murder of a policewoman in N'vei Yaakov, a coffee company owner and philanthropist in Atarot, and three Israelis in a Tel Aviv restaurant - all in a ten-day period in Feb.-Mar. 2002.