Petition (H)On 30 December 2004, Adalah submitted a petition to the Supreme Court of Israel demanding that the Court order the Attorney General (AG) to file a criminal indictment against two Israeli police officers who shot and killed 17-year-old Mahmoud Sadi, a Palestinian citizen of Israel from Led (Lod). Adalah filed the petition after the State Attorney’s Office rejected an appeal filed by Adalah against the decision of the Ministry of Justice Police Investigation Unit (“Mahash”) to close the investigatory file against the two police officers - Yogev Kogon and Efi Tshuva - in September 2004. Like Mahash, the State Attorney’s Office claimed that the evidence failed to indicate that the police officers committed any crime.
Based on a thorough review of the state’s evidence, including the autopsy report, testimonies of police officers and an eyewitness, as well as fingerprint and other forensic reports, Adalah argued in the petition that Mr. Sadi was killed by the police without posing any danger to them, and that their use of deadly force against Mr. Sadi constitutes manslaughter, causing death by negligence, and causing harm with aggravating intent. Thus, Adalah argued that, based on all the facts, none of which are disputed by the parties, the decision not to indict the police officers is an error of law and must be overturned by the Supreme Court. Adalah Attorney Marwan Dalal filed the initial complaint to Mahash in December 2003, and the appeal to the State Attorney’s Office in April 2004, and is continuing to represent Mr. Sadi’s mother before the Supreme Court.
Mr. Sadi was shot and killed on the evening of 8 December 2003 in Ramle, a city in the center of Israel. At the time of his death, Mr. Sadi’s car was stopped at a red traffic light. He was the driver and two other passengers were in the car. Two police cars - one an unmarked rental car and the other a marked white Toyota, an official police car - surrounded Mr. Sadi’s car. Police officers then came out of the cars and shot no less than fifteen bullets in the direction of Mr. Sadi and his car. In public statements made immediately after the event, the police falsely alleged that the deceased was one of the biggest drug dealers in the area, that he had pointed a gun at one of them from the car he was driving, and that the police had then shot him.
According to the autopsy report, Mr. Sadi’s cause of death was a bullet shot from behind, which hit the back of his head; Officer Kogon fired that fatal bullet. No police officer, except for Officer Tshuva, who shot Mr. Sadi in the chest, said that Mr. Sadi was pointing a gun or that anyone else in the car had a gun; in fact, Officer Kogon himself told Mahash that there was “no” gun. In addition, the fingerprint report of the alleged gun held by Mr. Sadi did not have his fingerprints on it, and the autopsy report of his body does not mention any gun residue on his hands or fingers. Further, an independent eyewitness to the events supports all of the evidence that Mr. Sadi did not pose any danger to the police.
Adalah emphasized in the petition that the closing of the file against the police, despite all of the facts, legitimizes the dangerous use of force by the police against citizens in general, and demonstrates an almost total disregard for the right to life of Palestinian citizens of the state.
H.C. 12000/04, Labiba Sadi and Adalah v. The Attorney General (case pending).