Court to rule on petition to release body of suspected car-rammer

The High Court is set to rule on a petition to force the police to release the body of a Bedouin man killed by police in the course of what officials have called an intentional car-ramming attack last week that left one cop dead.

A police representative is arguing to the bench that the family of Yaqoub Mousa Abu Al-Qia’an has refused to agree to terms for the funeral — usually meant to tamp down crowd sizes and keep the procession from turning into a protest — and thus the body cannot be released.

Police have also continued to maintain that the incident was a terror attack, despite mounting evidence the car crash last week was not intentional. Witnesses and others say Abu Al-Qia’an was simply trying to leave when he shot at by police, causing his jeep to speed into a group of cops, killing Erez Levi.

The incident occurred as police were securing the area to carry out the demolition of several homes in the village of Umm al-Hiran, including one belonging to Abu Al-Qia’an, a schoolteacher and father of 12.