[News] Israeli court finds Barghuthi guilty

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Israeli court finds Barghuthi guilty

Thursday 20 May 2004 9:14 AM GMT


An Israeli court has convicted Palestinian leader Marwan Barghuthi on 
murder charges over the killings of five Israelis by resistance fighters 
from his Fatah movement.

The court in Tel Aviv on Thursday acquitted Barghuthi - whose popularity is 
second only to Palestinian President Yasir Arafat's - of orchestrating 
attacks that led to the deaths of more than 20 other Israelis.

The influential legislator categorically denies the accusations and rejects 
the trial proceedings as illegitimate. He was seized in 2002.

Prosecutors asked for five life sentences for the Intifada champion, widely 
seen as a potential successor to Arafat.

Barghuthi warned that the Intifada would only end when Israel ended its 
occupation.

"As long as Palestinian mothers are weeping, Israeli mothers
will also weep," he said.

Bargaining chips

Following the court's decision, resistance fighters said they will kidnap 
Israeli occupation soldiers to exchange them for Barghuthi.

A Gaza leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said the resistance movement 
will make abducting troops a "top priority".

On Thursday, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip said 
they felt Barghuthi's trial placed their uprising on trial, reported 
Aljazeera correspondent Walid al-Umari.

Following the conviction, Justice Minister Yosef Lapid
said Israel might consider putting Arafat on trial.

But a senior Israeli source said there were no immediate plans
for prosecuting Arafat. Lapid said Israel had not brought Arafat to trial 
already because it did not want to prosecute public figures.

Symbol of resistance

Barghuthi's trial has made him a symbol of the three and a half year 
Palestinian uprising.

His verdict comes at a time of high tension as Israeli occupation troops 
wage a bloody invasion in the occupied Gaza Strip refugee camp of Rafah 
which has left at least 46 Palestinians dead. The majority of those killed 
have been civilians.

"As a political prisoner his popularity has surged more than ever before to 
the level of a Nelson Mandela," Fatah lawmaker Qaddura Faris said, 
referring to the iconic South African former president who emerged from 
prison to defeat apartheid.

Supporters believe that finding Barghuthi guilty would only bolster him.

"I am against killing innocents. But ... I am proud of the resistance to 
Israeli occupation. To die is better than living under occupation," 
Barghuthi told prosecutors at one hearing.

He has reportedly used mobile phones smuggled into his cell to help broker 
short-lived ceasefires between Palestinian resistance groups and Israel.

Agencies


You can find this article at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/429B3AE1-5AED-4DED-9440-6434411904ED.htm 



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