In the video: the murder of the state witness Bassel Aasi, who was killed in September, is solved/photo: police spokesmen, editing: Shaul Adam
The Central District Court yesterday sentenced three of those involved in the murder of state witness Asal Mustafa Easi in the village of Bara in 2019. Two of the accused will serve over 20 years in prison.
A third will be released after his sentence is offset by the days of detention he has already served.
The three were convicted as part of a plea agreement signed between the parties.
Tarek Daud (27) from Kfar Bara who was convicted of murder out of indifference, will serve a sentence of 25 years in prison.
Bilal Nazal (29) was also convicted and will serve 20 years in prison and Hudifah Daoud (35), who was convicted of sabotage with aggravated intent, is the defendant who will be released after his sentence is offset with the detention days he has already served.
The charges of two other defendants were separated.
One of them, Sami Arar, will serve 14 years in prison and another defendant was convicted of aiding sabotage with aggravated intent, and will only serve nine months of community service.
The scene of Mustafa Easi's murder/Israel Police spokeswoman
Easi was a soldier in the Hariri family's criminal organization, and became a police agent and then a state witness against 15 members of the organization.
He was arrested in March 2005 in an extortion case.
When he was in the detention center Babu Kabir turned to the intelligence officer and asked to become a state witness, but the police first decided to use him as an agent within the organization.
He was promised a grant of NIS 150,000, along with a living allowance of NIS 6,000 per month, and the deletion of six criminal cases.
The ruling of the district court states that Aasi had several reasons for crossing the lines, but the main one was his desire to get out of the world of crime.
"I saw who I live with, what I live for, what I'm worth in the society I'm in...", Aasi is quoted, "I remain stuck in the same place, with the same people, without personality, without the ability to express an opinion, without the ability to do what I want... we did what we were told... until we lost our personality."
After the trial ended, Aasi left Israel for Thailand and started a new family there, but in 2015 he was forced to return to Israel by the authorities in both countries, due to suspicion of security offenses.
In the end he was convicted and imprisoned for about three years.
Since then, according to his family, he requested assistance from the police several times - but was refused, and was subsequently shot to death.
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Attorney Gil Friedman./Courtesy of those photographed
Mustafa Easi/image processing, image processing
The indictment states that on September 13, around 4:00 p.m., Arar arrived driving an Isuzu type vehicle at the Shaar Eliyahu crossing.
At the same time, Daoud, Bilal and Abdullah also arrived at the crossing in a Skoda car and the four moved to the territories of the Palestinian Authority.
When they arrived at Kalkilia, Hudifah joined them.
The three planned to kill Aasi in his home in the city, but later decided that they would kill him while Hudifa drove him to Kfar Bara.
As a result of the shooting, the state witness suffered three gunshot wounds to the head, two gunshot wounds to the neck on the left, and a gunshot wound to the back on the left, resulting in his death.
After the shooting, Daoud returned to the car and the three fled the scene.
Towards 20:00, Tarek Daoud, Nazal and Arar drove from Jaljulia towards the village of Bara, armed with a loaded gun and hiding the first two digits of the Isuzu vehicle's license plate.
When they approached the village of Bara, they turned to Derech Afar and ambushed Aasi.
At 8:26 p.m. Hudifa Daoud drove Aasi to Kfar Bara, with the latter sitting in the back seat.
When they reached the ambush point, the three started driving after them in the Isuzu car.
On Saleh al-Din Street, they overtook the vehicle in which he was traveling to the state, and closed it.
At this point, Tarek Daud opened the rear right window of the Isuzu vehicle, pulled out the gun and fired several shots at the rear of the vehicle where Aasi was sitting.
Hudifa Daud ran out of the vehicle towards the nearby field, while Tarek Daud got out of the vehicle and continued to fire several shots at Aasi while sitting in the vehicle.
Attorney Gil Friedman, who represents Bilal Nazal, responded: "After a long evidentiary process that began already in 2019, the parties decided to reach a plea deal. My client was sentenced to 20 years in prison when considering the risks that were before us, it was decided to end this process this way."
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