Nazareth lawyer suspended over Islamic State plot indictment

The Israel Bar Association has reportedly suspended a Nazareth lawyer indicted for alleged membership in the Islamic State group and for plotting to carry out attacks in Israel.

In a disciplinary tribunal held Monday, the bar decided to temporarily ban 40-year-old Adnan Al a-Din from practicing pending a final judgment in the state’s case against him, the news site Ynet reported.

A-Din was arrested in January along with six other Arab citizens of Israel who had allegedly sworn allegiance to the Islamic State, were actively planning to join the Salafist jihadist group in Syria, and were plotting to carry out attacks in Israel.

A-Din was identified as the central member of the Galilee cell who, the Shin Bet charged, presented himself to the other members of the group as a “senior and official IS officer in Palestine.”

He allegedly preached the gospel of radical Islamist ideology to the other members of the group, advocated strongly in favor of terror attacks against Israeli civilians, and had the members behead sheep in order to prepare them for the demands of jihad.

In Monday’s hearing, the Haifa district Ethics Committee of the Bar Association claimed that the acts attributed to Adnan Al a-din constitute “turpitude” — a legal term referring to depraved or immoral behavior — Ynet reported.

According to the committee, the allegations render a-Din unfit to practice law despite the lack of a final ruling in his case.

“The acts attributed to the attorney in question, as described in the indictment, have great severity,” a representative of the committee was quoted as saying. “These offenses constitute a desecration of the rule of law.”

In response, a-Din claimed the indictment does not constitute evidence of “turpitude” on his part.

In a letter submitted to the disciplinary court, A-din wrote, “The charges in respect to membership of an illegal organization, as well as support of a terrorist organization, do not constitute a ‘lack of morality’ on my part, and therefore should not lead to the conclusion I behaved or expressed myself in a way that disgraces the legal profession.”

He also reportedly claimed that a suspension stood in opposition to the legal principle of “innocent until proven guilty.”

Over the past two years, the Shin Bet domestic security service has indicted dozens of Arab Israelis for their support of the Islamic State, and has busted several IS-affiliated cells planning to carry out attacks on Israeli civilians, almost exclusively in the West Bank.

In October Israeli security forces arrested three people in northern Israel accused of plotting attacks for the Islamic State, according to the Shin Bet security service. A fourth man, who is currently serving a life sentence in prison, was also charged with joining the organization, Israeli officials said, while three others were charged with aiding the terror cell.

Over the past several years, the number of Palestinian and Israeli Arab volunteer recruits has increased among Syrian rebel groups, and the Shin Bet believes that more than 40 Israeli Arabs have joined the Islamic State since 2014.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.