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Tuesday, February 09, 2010

A brief peek into recent Palestinian Arab court rulings

Palestinian Arab newspapers are different from other nations' media, in that you hardly ever read about court cases and rulings for ordinary crimes. They arrest people, but after that the stories usually disappear. Whether this is a reflection of the complete absence of any normal system of justice, or a cultural anomaly, I cannot say.

However, today there was one of these rare stories, apparently from a military court.

As best as I can interpret it, the following cases were concluded:

* A man was sentenced to death for collaborating with Israel.
* A soldier was sentenced to one year of prison for theft.
* 4 civilians were acquitted of attempted murder charges.
* 6 civilians were sentenced to six months of prison for being "against the general policy of the revolution."

See? They have a perfectly good criminal justice system!