Palm Beach Hotel in better times
Pinner was arrested on June 22 for allegedly firing at and injuring an Arab "with intent to cause harm" on the Gush Katif beach. He says that the Arabs were attacking at the time - and in fact the Arab participants admitted in court that they were throwing rocks.
Pinner, an unmarried licensed electrician, was in Gush Katif at the time to volunteer his services in the refurbishing of the Palm Beach Hotel for new families. His trial is underway, and appeals to release him from prison have been rejected several times - though not always for legal reasons. A Supreme Court decision on his appeal of his extended incarceration is expected - though it is not known when.
In addition, Pinner's attorney Baruch Ben-Yosef today filed another appeal, to the District Court, against his continued incarceration. Ben-Yosef said that as the trial proceeds, the weakness of the Prosecution's case becomes clearer. "My client admits that he fired," Ben-Yosef says, "but not at the Arab in question - and there is no proof that it was his bullet that hit him."
Despite his tribulations, Pinner seems to have not lost his sense of humor. He describes his court hearings in the following manner:
"...It was Wednesday 28 September, and I was up for the second hearing of my trial... Justice was proceeding at its usual sedate, calm pace, undisturbed by such concepts as presumption of innocence, factual evidence, or the right to a speedy trial. The hearing itself was comparatively brief--about an hour or so, in which two police officers in charge of the interrogation testified that: ...
• yes, they found a spent cartridge from my Uzi;
• no, they had not bothered to check the range or angle of fire to see if that could possibly have been the bullet which allegedly hit Nasser Wafi;
• no, they had not been able to run an identity parade to ask the Arab eye-witnesses if I was the shooter;
• no, they could not explain why it was impossible to do an identity parade;
• no, they could not explain why the police did not think of photographing me in order to run a photographic identity parade.
"The next hearing--the third--had been scheduled for 10 October, a week and a half later. At the end of the hearing, a funny thing happened: the judge, Ruth Barkai, casually mentioned that, by the way, she has another case that day, a more important case, in which she will be one of the panel of three judges. Therefore, she postponed the next hearing by another month... to 6 November.
"My attorney, Baruch Ben-Yosef, drew her attention to the fact that meanwhile, while the court takes its own sweet time, a man is sitting in jail. Barkai, with admirable restraint and a sharp glance at attorney Ben-Yosef, said: 'Yes, I know. No problem. November 6, 9:00 in the morning.'
"Now, it's not that the court is incapable of acting quickly... It's more that the individual's liberty is considered cheap and dispensable. And so, I have a recommendation for the honorable Court of Justice: instead of postponing the next hearing to 6 November 2005, postpone it instead to 22 June 2008. This will solve a lot of problems: no one--neither the lawyer for the prosecution, nor the lawyer for the defense, nor Her Honor the Judge, is yet taken up on that day. More importantly: by then, I will have been under arrest for three years, by which time the verdict of guilty/not guilty will be irrelevant. If I am not guilty, I will be released forthwith; and if the Court should decide that I am guilty, then I will already have served the required time in prison. That 2008 hearing can be brief--no more than a few moments needed to rise as Her Honor the Judge enters the courtroom. This, of course, will save the Honorable Court much of its precious time... "
Pinner was arrested on June 22 for allegedly firing at and injuring an Arab "with intent to cause harm" on the Gush Katif beach. He says that the Arabs were attacking at the time - and in fact the Arab participants admitted in court that they were throwing rocks.
Pinner, an unmarried licensed electrician, was in Gush Katif at the time to volunteer his services in the refurbishing of the Palm Beach Hotel for new families. His trial is underway, and appeals to release him from prison have been rejected several times - though not always for legal reasons. A Supreme Court decision on his appeal of his extended incarceration is expected - though it is not known when.
In addition, Pinner's attorney Baruch Ben-Yosef today filed another appeal, to the District Court, against his continued incarceration. Ben-Yosef said that as the trial proceeds, the weakness of the Prosecution's case becomes clearer. "My client admits that he fired," Ben-Yosef says, "but not at the Arab in question - and there is no proof that it was his bullet that hit him."
Despite his tribulations, Pinner seems to have not lost his sense of humor. He describes his court hearings in the following manner:
"...It was Wednesday 28 September, and I was up for the second hearing of my trial... Justice was proceeding at its usual sedate, calm pace, undisturbed by such concepts as presumption of innocence, factual evidence, or the right to a speedy trial. The hearing itself was comparatively brief--about an hour or so, in which two police officers in charge of the interrogation testified that: ...
• yes, they found a spent cartridge from my Uzi;
• no, they had not bothered to check the range or angle of fire to see if that could possibly have been the bullet which allegedly hit Nasser Wafi;
• no, they had not been able to run an identity parade to ask the Arab eye-witnesses if I was the shooter;
• no, they could not explain why it was impossible to do an identity parade;
• no, they could not explain why the police did not think of photographing me in order to run a photographic identity parade.
"The next hearing--the third--had been scheduled for 10 October, a week and a half later. At the end of the hearing, a funny thing happened: the judge, Ruth Barkai, casually mentioned that, by the way, she has another case that day, a more important case, in which she will be one of the panel of three judges. Therefore, she postponed the next hearing by another month... to 6 November.
"My attorney, Baruch Ben-Yosef, drew her attention to the fact that meanwhile, while the court takes its own sweet time, a man is sitting in jail. Barkai, with admirable restraint and a sharp glance at attorney Ben-Yosef, said: 'Yes, I know. No problem. November 6, 9:00 in the morning.'
"Now, it's not that the court is incapable of acting quickly... It's more that the individual's liberty is considered cheap and dispensable. And so, I have a recommendation for the honorable Court of Justice: instead of postponing the next hearing to 6 November 2005, postpone it instead to 22 June 2008. This will solve a lot of problems: no one--neither the lawyer for the prosecution, nor the lawyer for the defense, nor Her Honor the Judge, is yet taken up on that day. More importantly: by then, I will have been under arrest for three years, by which time the verdict of guilty/not guilty will be irrelevant. If I am not guilty, I will be released forthwith; and if the Court should decide that I am guilty, then I will already have served the required time in prison. That 2008 hearing can be brief--no more than a few moments needed to rise as Her Honor the Judge enters the courtroom. This, of course, will save the Honorable Court much of its precious time... "