Ramallah
RamallahFlash 90

The Palestinian Authority will charge 14 members of its security forces for allegedly beating opposition activist Nizar Banat to death in June, a spokesperson for the forces said on Sunday.

“The investigations have concluded, and the military prosecutors decided to charge all the officers and forces who participated in apprehending Nizar Banat,” PA security services spokesperson Talal Dweikat said, as quoted by Times of Israel.

The 14 alleged perpetrators will be charged with fatally beating Banat, under PA military law, said Dweikat.

Banat, one of the fiercest opponents of PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas, died as PA officials attempted to arrest him.

A post-mortem found he had been beaten on the head, chest, neck, legs and hands, with less than an hour elapsing between his arrest and his death.

Following Banat’s death, Palestinian Arabs took to the streets to protest, leading to expressions of concern from the UN, which said that PA security forces had used force against initially peaceful protesters, “including beating them with batons and firing teargas and stun grenades.”

Last week, Banat’s family turned to British police and the UN in its request for justice.

Banat's family, who has said it has no confidence in the PA's capacity to deliver justice and called for an international probe, asked Britain's Metropolitan Police to open an investigation under the principle of universal jurisdiction.

The British firm Stoke White, which represents Banat’s family, also said it had asked multiple branches of the United Nations human rights system to open investigation, including the Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions and four special rapporteurs.