Cop accused of killing Bedouin man sent to house arrest
Sami al-Jaar was shot during a January drug bust in Rahat; police had initially denied pulling the trigger
The Jerusalem District Court on Friday instructed that a police officer suspected of shooting to death an unarmed man in the Bedouin city of Rahat be released to house arrest, denying the state’s request that he be remanded into custody.
The judge criticized the state prosecution over the suspect’s arrest, saying that it had not provided a cause of the death of Sami al-Jaar, 20, who was killed during a drug bust on January 14.
In response, the prosecution requested and received an injunction that will allow it to appeal the decision to release the suspect to house arrest in the Supreme Court later Friday.
The policeman, whose identity has not been released, admitted overnight Wednesday that he was involved in the deadly shooting of Jaar in an incident for which police had previously denied responsibility.
The Israel Police internal affairs unit said in a statement that the suspected cop had at first repeatedly denied involvement in the shooting of Jaar. However, after an investigation into the matter, the suspected policeman finally owned up to his part in what is suspected to have been an illegal shooting.
During Jaar’s funeral, mourners clashed with police and a man died, apparently from a heart attack brought on by tear-gas inhalation. Another man sustained a serious bullet wound, sparking even more outrage among the local community.
Following Jaar’s death, officials insisted he was not killed by deliberate police fire. According to a police account of the event, policemen shot in the air after they were attacked with stones as they entered Rahat, a Bedouin city in southern Israel, to arrest several people for drug-related crimes. Jaar, who was standing nearby, was hit inadvertently, police had said.
The account was met with widespread skepticism in the city, and Jaar’s family said he was not involved in the arrests. The victim’s father, Khaled al-Jaar, himself a former cop, said that when the police came he went outside with his son to see where the noise was coming from.
Across the street, he saw police beating several youths, he said. The elder Jaar approached the police and told them they shouldn’t be beating them. He then fought with a policeman, he said, who pushed him to the ground, aimed his gun at him and warned him to leave. Khaled al-Jaar returned to stand near his house shortly after, he said.
According to his account, the police sprayed tear gas at his son, and then “there was massive gunfire” and his son was fatally hit.