IDF announces the Samaria Military Court convicts Muhammed Haruyash for involvement in and attempts to carry out terror attacks.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBPalestinians wearing Hamas, Fatah masks 370(photo credit: REUTERS/Ismail Zaydah)
The IDF announced on Monday that the Samaria Military Court had sentenced senior Hamas terrorist Muhammad Haruyash to 24 years in prison for attempting to carry out terror attacks.According to the IDF, Haruyash was involved in Hamas’s security arm between 2003 and 2009. A security source said that he was captured on September 15, 2009.After an interrogation period, he was indicted on November 11 of that year, said the source. Haruyash was accused of 22 offenses, including several attempts to kill security forces, the source indicated.In several of the incidents, he engaged in close exchanges of fire with security forces, and on one such occasion, his arm was injured. Haruyash was also accused of participating in the advanced planning of suicide attacks against Israel in 2004, along with other Hamas agents.The IDF said that after an extensive series of hearings regarding the evidence in the case – including claims by Haruyash that statements which he made to investigators were obtained illegally – the court dismissed all the claims the terrorist made in his defense and convicted him.Before arriving at its decision, the court compared the differing accounts of Haruyash and his interrogators, who came to court to testify, said the source. The court found the interrogators’ account of the interrogation to be more credible, accepting the confessions he made to interrogators as admissible evidence.Of the 22 offenses, Haruyash was convicted of 18 and acquitted on four for insufficient evidence.Among the offenses for which he was acquitted are some, but not all, of the shooting incidents ascribed to him, assembling explosive material and contact with foreign agents, according to the source.
