A monument erected to the killer of Israel Defense Forces soldier Oleg Shaichat has been dismantled. The monument to Mohammed Hatib of Kafr Kana in Lower Galilee was put up some 10 days by his family. Hatib was shot and killed in a clash with a Border Police force.
Hatib and Ala Musa, 22, of Kafr Manda, opened fire on a Border Police jeep with the M-16 assault rifle of Shaichat, who was murdered by the "Galilee Liberators" terror cell in July 2003.
Another member of the Galilee Liberators cell, Mohammed Anbatawi, 21, of Kafr Kana, is currently on trial for the kidnapping and murder of Shaichat. Anbatawi confessed to and reenacted the kidnapping and murder immediately after his arrest. The confession led to the release of three other Kafr Kana residents who were initially accused of the crime.
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At the start of his trial, Anbatawi retracted his admission of guilt, charging that his confession had been extracted by unlawful means, and that Hatib was the real murderer.
Zvi Haklai, who heads the Lower Galilee Regional Planning and Building Council, ordered the monument torn down. "It was an illegal structure and the text it bore was also infuriating," Haklai said. "We issued a warning by means of an administrative demolition order. We have the authority to dismantle an illegal structure within 24 hours of such an order being issued."
The monument was dismantled with the use of a crane, with forces from the Nazareth police station securing the work.
According to attorney Walid Hatib, the Hatib family lawyer, "The demolition is an act of bullying. I informed the legal adviser to the planning and building council that we intend asking the court to issue an injunction. The Nazareth Magistrate's Court did indeed issue an injunction, but we learned that a few minutes earlier, the monument had already been torn down. If the court had refused to issue an injunction, we would have dismantled the monument ourselves. They should have waited for the debate on our request to cancel the demolition order that was scheduled for next week.
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