The license of a driver who killed 7 people was accidentally renewed;

Licensing Office: Not updated

In the fatal accident committed by Jamal Abu Siam, 14 people were also injured.

After that, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison and a 15-year license revocation.

Less than a year after his release, he was apprehended by police while driving the vehicle - while his license was received in the mail while in prison.

Advocate: "Discriminated against only because he had an accident"

Yoav Itiel Weiner will defend

20/03/2022

Sunday, 20 March 2022, 11:03 Updated: Monday, 21 March 2022, 11:23

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The court sentenced Jamal Abu-Siam, the truck driver who killed seven family members in 2013 to 4 years in prison (Photo: Eran Gilwarg, editor: Shimrit Goldstein)

The Ministry of Transportation granted a driver's license to a truck driver who killed seven people in a car accident - even though he was imprisoned and disqualified for driving.

This, following a "short in communication" between the court and the Ministry of Transport.

The driver was arrested by police in the town of Rahat, where he lives.

His license was revoked again - and he remained in custody until the end of the proceedings against him according to the decision of the Be'er Sheva District Court, which will hear today (Monday) his lawyer's appeal on the matter.

The driver, Jamal Abu Siam, a 38-year-old resident of Rahat and a father of four, caused a fatal car accident in 2013 in which 14 other people were seriously injured along with the seven killed.

In January 2017, the Haifa District Court convicted Abu Siam as part of a plea deal between the state and its defense attorneys, attorneys Tami Ullman and Shadi Saruji and Judge Kamal Saab.

He was sentenced to four years in prison, probation, a fine and compensation to each of the families of the deceased and to each of the victims - as well as an actual disqualification from holding or obtaining a driver's license for a truck or heavy vehicle permanently and a private vehicle for 15 years.

This, when the court emphasized that the period of imprisonment will not come in the count of disqualification.

It was further determined that the fatal accident occurred "due to his actions and omissions", and that he "drove the truck for a long time despite the many malfunctions in it, and for which there were warnings on various occasions and did not take care to repair them".

The court ruled that he "drove the truck recklessly, at a high speed that did not suit the road conditions, lost control of the truck and did not make proper use of the brakes."

The Supreme Court then increased the actual prison sentence to 5 years.

More on Walla!

A truck driver killed seven people in an accident - and will be sent to only 4 years in prison

To the full article

Abu Siam in court after the accident, in 2013 (Photo: Eran Gilwarg)

The scene of the fatal accident in which Abu Siam's license was revoked in 2013 (Photo: Eran Gilwarg)

It was only in February last year that Abu Siam was released from prison, and before a year had passed since the 15-year disqualification - the detective team that followed him on January 30 this year, noticed that he was already driving a Hyundai, on al-Salam Street in Rahat.

Detectives arrested him and were surprised when he presented them with a driver's license issued to him by the licensing office.

During the trial currently being held against him in the Be'er Sheva Magistrate's Traffic Court, for driving while disqualified, it becomes clear that a paper driver's license was indeed sent to him by mail and he claims this incident occurred while he was a prisoner.

Judge Alon Ofir said that the very payment of the license and receiving it in this way from the state, by him or through his wife, is on the face of it a violation of the law as he is disqualified from obtaining or holding a driver’s license.

"Factually he was disqualified from driving a private vehicle for 15 years, and this disqualification was lawfully notified to him in his presence at least twice, on the face of which the license was also deposited or an affidavit changed at the court secretariat, and the mere sending of a copy of the license to the respondent "The trial has passed and does not overturn his sentence as it was handed down in two courts," the judge noted.

In court he insisted she was the one driving while arrested, but police memos proved otherwise.

"These are separate memos of five police officers who all describe the respondent as someone who was observed by them driving alone in a vehicle in stark contrast to his claim that his wife was the one who drove it until he stopped near their business," Judge Ophir ruled.

"I did not find any slight or substantial erosion in the quality of the evidence presented by the State for the respondent's actual driving of the vehicle near his detention by police officers. The State has substantiated evidence ostensibly proving the respondent's driving in a private vehicle on the day he was arrested."

Last week, at the request of the prosecution, Judge Oshrat Hanna Bar ordered his detention until the end of the legal proceedings against him.

The court in Be'er Sheva (Photo: Shai Makhlouf)

"This is serious conduct by a prisoner on a license who has been caught driving when he knowingly disqualified from driving under a serious manslaughter case," she told Walla!

Superintendent Adv. Rachel Simon Sabag, head of the Negev Traffic Claims Branch.

He was supposed to report the disqualification to the Licensing Office.

The court accepted our claim that his dangerousness was high and detained him until the end of the legal proceedings against him. "

The defense attorney, Adv. 11, 11) for the first time, interrogated and released from the police station "and that," he should not be discriminated against by others only due to the fact that he was involved in a fatal accident. "

The Ministry of Transportation informed Walla!

It is clear that the court administration updated on the disqualification of Abu Siam Jamal from February 2017, for a period of 15 years in the licensing systems, only four years after the disqualification, in February 2021. "Since the disqualification was not updated in the licensing systems for four years, there was no restriction on "Upon obtaining the information about the case and updating the details, the director of the Licensing Authority, Efi Rosen, ordered the driver to immediately summon the licensing office in Be'er Sheva to deposit the license immediately."

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