Israeli prosecutors have closed the case surrounding an incident in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran, saying there was no way to determine whether the January 2017 death of a police officer there was the result a terror attack.
In a statement, the prosecutors added that there was no basis for criminal proceedings to be launched against the officers involved in the event, in which Yakub Abu al-Kiyan was shot and killed after running over policeman Erez Levy.
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At the time, the Israel Police claimed Kiyan was a terrorist who had intentionally hit Levy. However, the legal officials now say there is no way to show whether Kiyan, a schoolteacher, lost control of his car or was acting with the intent to kill.
“Either way,” they declared, “even if the driver lost control of the car, there is no basis to suspect criminal action on the part of the officers [who shot Kiyan] since they acted in accordance with protocol and according to what they perceived to be the situation at the time.”
Raed Abu al-Kiyan, an activist and leader of the Umm al-Hiran community, who is Kiyan’s nephew, said the family would appeal the decision to close the case.
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“We didn’t have too many expectations. The prosecutors are part of the state and sadly, instead of investigating the truth regarding this murder they decided to skip over it,” he said.
“Yakub was shot and left bleeding. We will never give up our demand to reopen this investigation and will continue until the truth is revealed,” he added.
The village is supposed to be evacuated and, according to the local leader, “the timing of [today’s] statement is an attempt to blow up the deal reached with residents. That’s what this really is. Clean and simple.”
In recent years Israeli authorities have tried to reach an evacuation agreement with all the village’s residents, who will have to move to the nearby Bedouin town of Hura. A number of solutions were proposed, including a move to a temporary site for a few years until a new neighborhood could be built for them in Hura. But to date no agreement has been struck.
At the time of the incident in January, police said that Kiyan was a member of the Islamic State group who had acted as a so-called lone wolf terrorist.
Three months ago Haaretz reported that, in contradiction to the position of the Israel Police, the Justice Ministry’s internal police investigation unit had decided the incident was not a terror attack. A source from a law enforcement agency said at the time that no evidence was found indicating advance planning on Kiyan’s part, nor did he seem to have had any political motive.
The police welcomed the announcement Monday about closure of the case, saying it “fully confirms” their initial investigation into the event and adding, “Now that the [legal] investigation is over, the police can continue the process of probing the incident and learning from it.”
Article source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/BREAKING-Iron-Dome-intercepts-rocket-fired-from-the-Gaza-Strip-517486
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