The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court sentenced policemen Baruch Peretz and Asaf Yakutieli to two and a half years in prison on Monday for leaving an injured Palestinian man, Omer Abu Jariban, on a road near the Ofer military base in Samaria. Jariban was found dead on the road two days later. The incident began when Jariban illegally entered Israel, stole a car and crashed on Route 6, a toll road that crosses Israel. Jariban was hospitalized at the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer and after his release was taken to a police station in Rehovot, where police realized there was no room for him. After several administrative oversights, the commander of the police station instructed officers to take Jariban back to the West Bank, a move that negated standard police procedures. Peretz, the commanding officer on duty at the time, passed on the instruction to officer Yakutieli, who drove Jariban to a spot close to the Ofer military base in Samaria and left him on the road. Jariban, who was dressed in pajamas, had a catheter attached to his body, and had no shoes, food or water, was found two days later after he had died of dehydration. "The behavior of the accused in relation to the person they arrested and who was at their mercy was disgusting and horrific," presiding judge Haim Li-Ran said. In his ruling, Li-Ran continued to express his shock over the way Jariban was treated. "I find it difficult to understand how, despite their undeniable awareness of the suspect's physical and mental state, they decided to turn a blind eye and completely ignore the condition of a man created in the image of God, and abandoned him just like that in the middle of the night on a dark road just like a discarded vessel that no one has use of." A statement by the police Internal Investigation Unit on Monday said, "The court gave a normative meaning of the highest kind to the harming of a human life and the severe indifference and negligence exhibited by the policemen in this case." Tzadok Hugi, Peretz's attorney, said "The sentence is unrealistic and disproportionate, and we will appeal it."
Policemen jailed for leaving Palestinian to die
Court rules two policemen were guilty of manslaughter by criminal negligence in the death of Omer Abu Jariban, who died on a road after being left there in pajamas with a catheter attached to his body • The two received a two-and-a-half year prison term.
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