Adalah Demands Appointment of Investigatory Judge to Examine the Cause of Death of Mr. Suleiman al-Atayka, an Arab Bedouin Citizen from the Naqab

On 4 March 2008, Adalah, in cooperation with the Regional Council for the Unrecognized Villages in the Naqab (RCUV), filed a motion to the Beer el-Sabe (Beer Sheva) Magistrates’ Court to demand the appointment of an investigatory judge to examine the cause of the death of Mr. Suleiman al-Atayka, pursuant to Article 19 of the Investigation into Circumstances of Death Law (1958).

Mr. al-Atayka is an Arab Bedouin citizen of Israel from the unrecognized village of Wadi al-Na’am (al-Azazmi) in the Naqab (Negev). He was killed on 21 February 2008 after a police car that had been pursuing him through an open, desert-like area adjacent to Wadi al-Na’am hit his motorcycle. The motion was filed on behalf of the two brothers of the deceased by Adalah Attorneys Morad el-Sana and Nabil Dakwar.

In the motion, Adalah argued that a crime had been committed that revealed disdain for the life of the deceased and lead to his death. According to reports gathered from eye-witnesses, the motorcycle could have been brought to a stop if the police car had overtaken it, without crashing into it with fatal force, which is what actually took place, given that there was high visibility in area in which the incident took place.

Following the filing of an earlier motion by the police, and with the consent of Mr. al-Atayka’s family, the court had decided to conduct an autopsy on the body in order to determine the cause of death, in view of the suspicious circumstances surrounding the incident. However, at the time the motion was written, neither Adalah nor the family had received any report from the autopsy from the Institute for Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir.

In the motion, Adalah argued that, “According to affidavits and the conviction of the police that the cause of the death of Suleiman al-Atayka was unnatural, it is necessary to conduct an immediate investigation by way of an investigatory judge, particularly given that the unnatural death occurred at the hands of the police … in order to assist the progress of the examination into the circumstances of the death and the bringing of those responsible to justice.”

Hussein al-Rafaya, the Head of the RCUV, stated that, “This incident has raised a large number of doubts and suspicions, in particular as regards the legality or otherwise of the appalling way in which the police operated, in light of the frequent incidents of police violence that have taken place in the unrecognized villages. This matter leads us to believe that this is a systematic problem within the police, and therefore Adalah, with our cooperation, is pursuing legal channels in the case of Suleiman al-Atayka.”