The Krayot Family Court today (Sunday) finally ruled that the grave of the boy Uziel Khoury, who was buried at the age of one year and one month in the 1950s and whose name was linked to the Yemeni abduction case, will open tomorrow to test genetic findings and whether he is related to his family.
The decision was made at the request of Mazal Barko, the family sister, who since 2018 has been fighting in the courts in Israel for the right to open the grave in order to find out whether her brother is buried there.
At the request of the state, Barko will stand 20 meters from the grave, next to lawyer Rachel Dotan, who represented the family.
Thus, she will be able to follow the actions of a member of the Institute of Forensic Medicine who will conduct the excavation at the site.
Advocate Dotan represented Barko in all the courts up to the Supreme Court, as the state piled many difficulties on the application and there was the impression that the state, for its own reasons, was not interested in opening the tomb.
Yemeni hostage protest (archive), Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
In addition to Barko's presence at the place, three cameras will be set up to monitor what is happening, at the request of the family.
One camera will aim at the head of the tomb opener, and the other two cameras will monitor and photograph what is happening from several angles.
It should be noted that the state objected to the fact that the cameras would broadcast aloud and live what was happening at the place to the child's family, but the court granted this request.
Mazal Barko told Israel Today: "It's a mixed feeling, on the one hand it's very exciting and on the other hand it's a feeling that after 70 years we managed to reach the last line and I hope we know the truth, what it was. We are in court for nearly four years, "During which the state piled a lot of difficulties on us. I doubt if there is anything in the grave at all, but I hope we will finally know what happened 70 years ago and if my brother is buried there."
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