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Last update - 18:49 05/11/2009
Islamic leader in Israel convicted of assaulting cop
By Liel Kyzer and Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondents
Tags: Israel news, Ra'ad Salah 

Sheikh Ra'ad Salah, head of the Islamic Movement's northern branch, was convicted on Thursday of assaulting a police officer during a 2007 protest in Jerusalem. According to the court, Salah spit in the face of a Border Policeman in 2007 in the midst of a demonstration against reconstruction work in Jerusalem's Old City.

The court decision states that Salah arrived at one of the entrances to the Old City in East Jerusalem to protest Israel's rebuilding of the Mugrabim bridge. Salah and dozens of other protesters tried to storm the site, to the point of illegal rioting, the court states. During the event, Salah spit at a policeman "who felt the ugly warm spit on his face, as he described in his testimony," judge Yitzhak Shimoni wrote.

"The defendant's testimony was evasive and aggressive, and was often found to be untrue," the judge wrote in his ruling. "Salah took advantage of the courtroom to voice his opinions on the 'Israeli regime's crime' against the al-Aqsa Mosque ? a Muslim holy site. These remarks were entirely rejected after I ruled that they are not pertinent and that the right to protest does not give the defendants the right to riot and assault police officers."
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One other man was also convicted for taking part in the riot.

Salah is facing two additional charges over having waved a Syrian flag in the Golan Heights and for giving a speech, described by the court as "incitement", in Wadi Joz in Jerusalem.

Last month, Salah was arrested on suspicion of having incited to violence during a speech relating to clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police on Temple Mount. In his address, Salah called on his movement's members and Muslims across Israel to prevent Israeli rightists from entering the al-Aqsa compound. No indictment has been filed in that case yet.

Salah has been arrested several times over recent years over confrontations with police.

The Islamic Movement issued a response, saying that "the justice we seek is a divine justice - we don't expect justice from the Israeli regime and the Israeli establishment. All the arms of the establishment have joined together against us. We are the ones with rights to al-Aqsa, and we will never relinquish these rights."

The movement's spokesperson said that the group's legal team will consider whether to file an appeal over Salah's conviction and will arrive at a decision in the coming days.
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