Last update - 00:00 09/10/2007
State to charge drivers in Kfar Tavor crash with manslaughter
By Eli Ashkenazi, Haaretz Correspondent
The State Prosecution announced Tuesday that it will charge two men suspected of killing a 9-year-old girl in a Kfar Tavor road accident last month with manslaughter, and not with murder as they had initially planned.
Assad Shibli, 20, faces manslaughter charges for allegedly running over Tal Zino, 9, with an All Terrain Vehicle in the northern town of Kfar Tavor on Yom Kippur. His relative Ahmad Shibli, 21, who was in the vehicle at the time of the accident, will face similar charges. Police will request an extension of the suspects' remand on Tuesday.
Earlier this month the State Prosecution instructed the police to investigate the killing as a murder, a highly unusual decision in cases of road accidents. The police then said it would be virtually impossible to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the suspect, who denies the claims, in fact intended to kill the girl.
Assad Shibli had been driving the vehicle despite the fact that his license had been recently revoked, due to a traffic violation. Moreover, the owner of the ATV maintained that the suspect had stolen the vehicle from him.
The suspects are residents of the Bedouin town of Shibli, near Kfar Tavor. Assad Shibli was taken to hospital to be treated for minor injuries when the ATV overturned as a result of the accident. Ahmad Shibli fled from the scene of the accident and turned himself in to police a few days later.
The suspect continually maintained that he had entered Kfar Tavor in order to draw money from a cash machine at the bank and was then frightened by some local residents and began to drive fast, consequently losing control of the vehicle.
Investigators were reluctant to accept his version of events, since the ATM is situated at the entrance to Kfar Tavor while the synagogue is in the middle of the village.