Commission Must Allow Victim's Families to Cross-Examine Witnesses in "Warnings Hearings"
Today, 19 June 2002, Adalah filed a motion to the official Commission of Inquiry into the October 2000 events calling on the Commission to allow the families of those killed in October 2000 to participate in the "warnings hearings" proceedings. In the motion seeking legal standing, Adalah Staff Attorney Marwan Dalal argued that the families should be allowed, through their legal counsel, to question and cross-examine witnesses who may have been directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of their sons.
The right of the victims' families to participate in this phase of the Commission's proceedings is grounded in Israeli domestic law and has clear comparative legal precedent. Denial of this right is a clear violation of Article 15 of the Commissions of Inquiry Law (1968), which states that those who may be affected by the inquiry or its conclusions should be permitted to attend the Commission in person or through legal counsel, make statements, and examine witnesses. As relatives of the 13 Palestinian citizens killed in the October 2000 events, the family members will clearly be affected by the inquiry and its results. Additionally, by not permitting the victims' families to participate in the proceedings, the Commission is violating the basic principle of fairness and their right to due process. The right of family victims to participate in investigative tribunals has been upheld in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, notably the second Tribunal of Inquiry into the "Bloody Sunday" events in Northern Ireland (1998) and Stephen Lawrence Inquiry in London (1999), both of which have granted the legal representatives of victims' families the right to question and cross-examine witnesses. By granting the families these rights, the tribunals upheld their rights to the discovery of the truth in regards to their relatives' deaths.
The "warnings hearings" are the second phase of the Commission's proceedings. In February 2002, the Commission issued warnings to 14 individuals, indicating that they were likely to be affected by the inquiry or by its conclusions. Representatives of Adalah will be attending all of the warnings hearings.
