Last update - 00:00 21/11/2006
Prosecutors indict policeman for manslaughter of Israeli Arab
By Eli Ashkenazi, Haaretz Correspondent and Itim
An indictment was served to the Haifa District Court on Tuesday against a policeman suspected of manslaughter of an Israeli Arab shot to death during a pursuit in January 2006.
The family of the slain man, Nadim Milham, 28, had demanded that the policeman be charged with murder since, according to them, he was shot dead in his back.
But prosecutors decided to file an indictment for the lighter count of manslaughter, as police had alleged that Milham threatened the policeman with a loaded gun and that the shooting was in self defense. .
The incident took place on January 19 this year, when police detectives and Border Policemen searched for weapons the house of the Milehm family in the Wadi Ara village of Arara.
Milham, known to police through prior convictions of arms possession, violence and drugs, resisted the search and ended up dead.
The killing of Milham provoked riots and stone-throwing throughout Wadi Ara. When news of his death spread, dozens of his family members blocked the Wadi Ara road opposite the Iron police station.
Ahmed Milham, head of the board for commemorating Nadim, said that the indictment served by the prosecution is based on a biased investigation conducted by the Police Investigations Department.
"The Police Investigations detectives have done their best to cover up the truth and distort the facts," Milham said. "Accusing the shooting policeman only of manslaughter dismisses the murder as an inconsequential incident and to Nadim's death as nothing more than a regretful accident," he added.
Milham said also that the family would continue in their struggle for changing the charges on the indictment sheet, in order to bring to justice the policeman who "murdered Nadim purposefully."