Posted on 06/27/2012 3:58:42 PM PDT by SJackson
Hamed planned attacks: Zion Square December 2001, Cafe Moment March 2002, Hebrew University July 2002.
The Judea Military Court on Wednesday convicted Ibrahim Hamed, who was head of the Hamas military wing in the West Bank until his arrest in 2006, of personally murdering 26 people and with facilitating and directing the murder of 20 others.
Hamed was convicted of planning, organizing, assisting, and executing the bombings in December 2001 at Zion Square in Jerusalem, at the Cafe Moment in Jerusalem in March 2002, in Sheffield Club in Rishon Lezion in May 2002 and July 2002 at the Hebrew University. His attacks killed 46 people and injured dozens.
Hamed, 47, from Silwad, became active in Hamas in the late 1980s. The Palestinian Authority imprisoned him, but he was released in 2001. Subsequent to his release he carried out and coordinated a series of lethal terror attacks.
He was arrested by Israeli security forces in 2006 after a long and protracted hunt. The prosecution is seeking a sentence of 56 consecutive life terms. The sentencing hearing has been set for next week.
Military Judge, Major Menachem Lieberman, noted that many Palestinian witnesses had testified that Hamed was innocent. In contrast, he found that the evidence presented by police was more believable regarding Hamed's guilt.
Hamed's attorney had also claimed in his defense that the evidence collected by police was taken by unlawful means.
Judge Lieberman accepted Shin Bet agents' (Israel Security Agency) testimony that methods used to collect evidence were used according to law.
Hamed did not make any statement to sway the court regarding his sentence. Instead he argued that he does not recognize the court's authority to judge or sentence him.
Besides terror attacks against people, Hamed was also convicted of ordering and carrying out a number of strategic "mega-attacks" against Israel's infrastructure, buildings, railroad systems and gas depots.
Hamas tried to free Hamed in the Gilad Schalit deal, but Israel refused.
The secretive Hamed had been the most wanted fugitive in the West Bank before his 2006 arrest, having narrowly eluded capture on at least two occasions.
In 2004, security forces managed to kill two of Hamed's lieutenants in Ramallah, but he got away at the last minute.
His capture had been a combination of elite policemen from the Yamam antiterror unit, backed by Dukifat infantry, who surrounded a two-story home in the al-Balua neighborhood based on intelligence provided by the Shin Bet that Hamed was holed up inside.
A the time, Hamed refused to surrender and was only captured after soldiers opened fire and after a bulldozer rammed the building, threatening to bring it down.
Unlike most terrorist interrogated by the Shin Bet, Hamed never admitted to any of the allegations against him throughout the interrogations.
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Islamic serial killers.
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