TEL AVIV, 28 April 2003 — Marwan Barghouti, the West Bank Fatah leader accused by Israel of terrorism, was removed from court yesterday as his trial resumed with testimony of people who had witnessed attacks he is charged with masterminding.
Dressed in his habitual brown prison jumpsuit, but with his hands unmanacled, Barghouti once again shouted that the court had no jurisdiction over him as a Palestinian parliamentarian captured when Israel invaded the West Bank town of Ramallah a year ago.
“I do not wish to be tried, this is an illegitimate court. I am a member of the Palestinian Parliament.
“This is a serious contravention of international law and the Geneva Convention. This is a political trial, rigged by the Israeli occupation and serving only the occupation,” he protested.
Judge Sara Sirota ordered him to sit quietly, but he refused. “So stand quietly,” she answered, whereupon Barghouti, once tipped as possible successor to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat shot back: “You are humiliating a people, not a person.”
After 20 minutes of the exchange, the judge ordered him removed from the courtroom and several witnesses then described attacks they had seen and which Israel says Barghouti masterminded — a charge he denies.
Among them was Willis Hazan, who described an attack on an all-night restaurant in Tel Aviv on March 5, 2002, when a Palestinian armed with grenades, a knife and an assault rifle killed three Israelis, including a policeman, and injured 31.
Hazan said he and his wife hid in the toilets when they heard the shots, but he borrowed a pistol from a friend and ventured out.
“I saw a tall blonde man, Russian-looking, struggling with a small dark person of Arab appearance. I hit the dark guy with the butt of the pistol. When the blonde man stabbed me in the back I realized that he was actually the terrorist ... and hit him in the head.”
