Six-and-a-half years after the assassination of prime
minister Yitzhak Rabin, and three years after charges were
first brought, the long-awaited trial of former Shin Bet
agent provocateur Avishai Raviv opened last week in the
Jerusalem Magistrate's Court. It was soon adjourned for three
months.
A paid Shin Bet informer from 1987, Raviv, 35, is charged
with failing to notify authorities of Yigal Amir's intention
to assassinate Rabin. If convicted, Raviv faces up to two
years in prison.
In the initial one-hour hearing Raviv's lawyer, Eitan Peleg,
said that "in general" his client denies the charges against
him.
"One must remember that there were many more people around
Yigal Amir who knew much more and were never brought to
trial," Peleg argued.
The trial is being heard by a special three-judge panel led
by Jerusalem Magistrate's Court President Amnon Cohen.
The trial is to resume on July 21, with prosecution and
defense witnesses to be called to the stand for five
consecutive days. The trial will mostly be open to the
public.
According to the original indictment, Raviv was also to face
charges of conspiracy, incitement, and supporting a terrorist
organization, for statements he made at a staged, televised
swearing-in ceremony for an extremist youth group called
Eyal. But in February, the State Attorney's Office decided to
drop these additional charges, following a Supreme Court
ruling that the state must prove a connection between the
suspect and a terrorist organization to prove incitement to
violence.
According to the indictment, in 1995 Amir told Raviv several
times he was planning to kill Rabin, but Raviv never reported
this to his operators.
The decision to drop the secondary charges, coupled with the
more than two-year delay in the opening of the trial, angered
those who worked to bring Raviv to trial.
Likud MK Michael Eitan calling the reduced charges, "the
latest in a series of moves [meant to] cheat, mislead, and
cover up serious flaws in the State Attorney's Office, which
for years knew of and cooperated with the operation of the
agent provocateur." Eitan has asserted that the prosecution
is not interested in seeing the Shin Bet's methods revealed
in a trial.
Officials familiar with the case have said it is likely a
plea bargain will eventually be reached, to ensure the Shin
Bet's methods are not exposed.
