The panel headed by the President of the Military Court of Appeals, Col. Nathaniel Benisho, recently rejected the appeal filed by the Military Prosecutor's Office on the acquittal in the Samaria Military Court of Naof Fahed Naof Bnei Odeh, the Palestinian accused of shooting and killing Ben Yosef Livnat in Nablus Yosef ten years ago. An adulterer was convicted of involvement in the murder, but acquitted of the murder offense itself.
The military court in Samaria acquitted Naoff, who at the time of the incident was a policeman in the Palestinian security services, of murder and convicted him of shooting at a man and sentenced him to six years in prison.
As stated, an appeal filed by the Military Prosecutor's Office was recently rejected and the Military Court of Appeals severely criticized the failures of the investigation conducted by the police, which made it impossible to determine with certainty that an adulterer was the one who fired Ben Yosef Livnat.
In an incident that took place in April 2011, Palestinian police officers stationed at the Tomb of Yosef in Nablus were shot at by Israeli vehicles that entered the compound, without coordination.
During the escape of the vehicles, they were shot at by the Palestinian police.
The indictment filed against Naoaf alleged that he was the one who carried out the shooting at Ben Yosef Livnat's vehicle, which as a result of the shooting injured his neck and died.
Adultery denied that he fired at Ben Yosef Livnat.
The military court in Samaria acquitted him of the offense of murder and this acquittal was upheld in the decision of the military court of appeals when the judge ruled: "I saw no reason to intervene in these rulings. I was not convinced "This is despite the fact that I also believe that the prosecution's version of the incident and the cause of death of the deceased is quite probable."
The judge, as stated, criticized the investigative failings in the case: "The investigation into the deceased's death was conducted in a negligent and unprofessional manner that is inconsistent with a minimum standard required by the investigating authorities.
Advocate Haim Bleicher of the Honno organization, who accompanies the Livnat family, said: "The military court accepted the scandalous verdict of the first court that acquitted the terrorist of murder, even though everyone said it was the killer terrorist.
There is no other possibility, as the court said, there is no other thesis to explain how he was killed other than the same bullet that the terrorist fired in his direction.
True, the investigation was not done properly, and there were also objective difficulties here because the attack was in hostile territory, but after all, if one wants to comment to the investigators the way is not by releasing terrorists for free.
It's a huge disgrace. "
Rivka Livnat, Ben Yosef's mother, said: "The same lax system that gave weapons to the Arabs in Nablus is the one that released my son's killer. There is no doubt in anyone's that he is the killer, but they still released him."
