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[Zabougornov]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1140867.html
No indictment for Arab man who couldn't read Hebrew notice of charges
By Tomer Zarchin
Tags: Israel news, Israel crime


A Jerusalem District Court judge withdrew a felony indictment this week because a letter informing the suspect of the prosecution's intent to press charges had not been translated into Arabic.

While indictments have previously been withdrawn because no such letter was sent, this appears to be the first time an Israeli judge has withdrawn an indictment because the letter was sent in a language the suspect does not read.

"It is hard to accept that at this critical stage, when the suspect, who does not read Hebrew, was at risk of becoming a defendant, with all the attendant injurious consequences ... he should be denied written notification in his own language of his right [to a hearing] and how to exercise it," wrote Judge Moshe Hacohen in his ruling Tuesday.
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Jerusalem District Attorney Eli Abarbanel has asked the State Prosecutor's Office to appeal the decision by Hacohen, who routinely criticized the prosecution while he headed the Jerusalem Public Defender's Office until his appointment to the bench a few months ago.

The indictment against Sayed Hassin, a resident of East Jerusalem, was filed last February. It accused him of hitting a 16-year-old cyclist with his car and leaving the scene after the impact caused the teen to fly off his bike. The charge sheet states that at the time of the accident, Hassin was driving without a license, which he has never had, and without insurance. Moreover, when questioned by the police in April 2007, he lied about the incident.

As mandated by law, the prosecution sent him a letter by registered mail informing him of the intent to press charges and summoning him to a hearing at which he could try to persuade the prosecution not to press charges, if he filled out a form requesting the hearing. However, Hassin said he never received the letter or the form.

The sides negotiated over a plea bargain for several months after the indictment was filed. In November, however, they informed the court that the negotiations had failed.

At that point, Hassin's public defender, Atif Farhat, raised various preliminary claims that he argued justified withdrawing the indictment. He said Hassin never received the prosecution's letter and that even if he had, Hassin would not have been able to read it.

In his ruling, Hacohen said that whether or not Hassin actually received the letter was irrelevant, because it would have done him no good.

The test, the judge wrote, is "whether, assuming that the defendant had received it, he could have understood" that the prosecution intended to press charges, the details of the charges, and the address "to which he could apply in writing to present his arguments" as to why he should not be charged.

In Hassin's case, Hacohen said, this means the prosecution should have sent the letter in Arabic, as per regulations dating back to the British Mandate that require all official documents to be issued in both Hebrew and Arabic.

"The expectation that the average man on the street in East Jerusalem reads Hebrew fluently is not necessarily well-founded," the judge wrote.
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