The convicted killer, the churchman, the prize - by Arnold Roth

...Of all the many distortions, inaccuracies and open lies connected with that coverage, none is as galling as the way this vicious, violent man is routinely - and dishonestly - called a "political prisoner", and sometimes a "detainee". There is no justification to call him anything other than convicted murderer and terrorist.

The 2004 Barghouti trial in Tel Aviv District Court was public, 
transparent, and definitive: the accused was convicted on multiple 
charges of murder and sentenced to five terms of life
imprisonment [Image Source]

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
09 June '16..

Twelve years ago, the career of an ambitious Palestinian Arab gang leader, a member of Arafat's inner circle, was convicted in Tel Aviv District Court in relation to the deaths of five innocent people.

On additional charges of attempted murder, membership of a terror organization and conspiracy to commit a crime, he was also convicted. He was acquitted on technical grounds in relation to 33 additional counts of murder. Our impression (we sat through part of the trial) was that the prosecution could have pressed those extra charges but was satisfied that he would be imprisoned for a long-enough term on those charges where the technical factors did not come into play.

At the time of the conviction, in May 2004, it was reported ["Barghouti Convicted in Deaths of Five People", Haaretz, May 20, 2004] that the prosecution sought a sentence of one life term for each murdered victim:

The court said in its verdict that "the defendant most of the time did not have direct contact with the field operatives who carried out the attacks. That connection was maintained through associates close to the defendant. Barghouti was responsible for providing the field units with money and arms via these associates..." The judges said Barghouti's orders for terror attacks were sometimes "based on instructions" from Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat. "Arafat would never give explicit instructions for attacks but he let it be known when the timing was right," the judges said. "He made sure his subordinates understood very well when he was interested in a cease-fire and when he was interested in terror attacks against Israel," the verdict said.

Barghouti was one of those Arafat subordinates.

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