Last update - 00:00 24/01/2008
AG to announce Sunday decision on reopening probe into Oct. 2000 riots
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz said Thursday he would announce next week his decision on whether to reopen an investigation against the police officers involved in the deaths of 13 Arabs during the riots of October 2000.
Mazuz told the Adalah Legal Center, which is considered a complainant in the matter, that it would be informed of his decision two hours before official publication.
Adalah had submitted a report in late 2006 to the State Prosecution in which it claimed the Justice Ministry's Police Investigation Department (PID) has ignored the recommendations of the Or Commission examining the events by failing to investigate the deaths of five of the 13 Arabs killed in the riots.
About two years ago, the PID decided to close all the cases pending against policemen suspected in the shootings.
Twelve of those killed in the riots were Israeli citizens and one was a Palestinian resident of the Gaza Strip.
Representatives of Adalah said Thursday that they doubted Mazuz would change his mind and reopen the case, despite the fact that the PID and the State Prosecution have begun reexamining the investigation materials.
"We have no expectations that someone who closed the case would open it anew seven years after the crime was committed," the organization said in a statement.
Adalah and relatives of those killed will hold a press conference on Sunday afternoon to address the attorney general's decision.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Wednesday in a meeting with Hadash party officials that he believed an investigation into police shooting of Jewish citizens would not have been closed.
Seven years have passed since the incident that redefined the relationship between Arab citizens of Israel and the state.
To date - and contrary to the spirit of the recommendations made by the Or Commission examining the events - no indictment was brought against any of those who shot the 13 dead, nor against any senior officials.
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