Court indicts terrorist accused of killing soldier with cinder block
Nizmi Abu Bakar, who is accused of fatally striking Amit Ben Yigal with a large brick last month, was indicted for intentionally causing death by Israel’s Military Court on Thursday.
The indictment is primarily based on the defendant’s confession, while his attorneys are claiming that it does not correspond with the defendant’s confession and is thus not valid.
As the indictment was being read to Bakar, he broke down in tears, shouting towards the judges: “I didn’t kill anyone on purpose. It’s not true, I didn’t do it. Who wrote that? I told Shin Bet [Israel Security Agency] interrogators everything, how could they write such things?”
The prosecution responded by claiming the defendant’s confession is backed up by a confession of his wife, who saw him return from the roof where the stone was dropped from.
The indictment describes how, after hearing screams from the direction of his neighbor’s house, Bakar “made his way to the western edge of the rooftop and saw IDF soldiers walking in two lines from the adjacent intersection. At this point, the defendant made the decision to take a brick and throw it off the rooftop he was standing on, towards the soldiers standing near the building.
“For that purpose, the defendant approached a brick wall that was positioned on the rooftop, near its south-western corner. The defendant grabbed a brick weighing 9-11 kilograms that was laying on the wall, unattached.” The indictment continues to describe how the defendant heard voices “which he recognized to be voices of soldiers, and threw the block towards the source of voices... with the intention of killing.”
As the block was being tossed from the 13-meter-high rooftop, “the deceased, who was walking at the time with his fellow soldiers near the edge of the building, looked up. The block hit his head with a strong force, causing him to collapse and lose consciousness instantly,” the indictment reads.
The prosecution requested to extend his detention until the end of proceedings.
Amit Ben Yigal’s father said upon arrival in the court that he has “complete faith in the attorneys and prosecutors in this case, who are going to demand that this terrorist is punished with no less than life in prison.”
Troops from the Golani Reconnaissance Battalion had been carrying out a series of arrests in the village of Yabad early in the morning of May 12 and had detained four wanted Palestinians – two suspected of involvement in a terrorist organization, and two suspected of throwing stones.
At around 4:30 a.m., after completing the arrests, troops began to leave the village when a group of 10 locals began throwing stones towards the troops who were making their way out of the village by foot.
After two stones were thrown at the troops, it is believed the suspect took the opportunity to drop the rock on Ben Yigal’s face as he was looking up with his rifle to identify who was throwing the stones.