Netanyahu puzzled over choice of judges in Lubarsky trial
Prime minister meets with parents of slain Duvdevan soldier Staff Sgt. Ronen Lubarsky, who urge PM to speed up demolition of terrorist’s house and say judges in case should be of higher rank in order to enable death penalty; Netanyahu stresses he cannot intervene but sympathizes with family's struggle.
The parents of combat soldier Staff Sgt. Ronen Lubarsky, who was killed by a Hamas terrorist three months ago, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday to ask him to speed up the demolition of Islam Yusuf Hamid's house.
Speaking with Netanyahu, Lubarsky's family insisted that the military court's panel of judges reviewing Hamid's case should to be of higher rank, which will enable them to impose the death penalty on the terrorist.
Netanyahu stressed he cannot intervene in the court's decision. However, he was puzzled regarding the choice of judges appointed to determine the terrorist's sentence.
Hamid dropped a marble slab on Lubarsky's head during an operation near Ramallah.
The Duvdevan soldier was critically wounded, and was later pronounced dead in the hospital.
The terrorist was arrested three weeks later and brought to Israel to stand trial.
Since his death, Ronen's family has been waging a struggle to demolish the terrorist's house.
Lubarsky's father, Vladimir, has written a letter to GOC of the Central Command Maj. Gen. Nadav Padan, urging him to stop delaying the demolition of Hamid's house and demanded him to impose the death penalty on him.
In an interview with Ynet, Vladimir said, "We were glad to hear about Netanyahu's intention to continue with his policy against terror."
"During our meeting with the Military Advocate General, we were told that the current policy is not to impose the death penalty on terrorists.
The Prime Minister's Office said Monday that "the Prime Minister emphasized in his meeting with Staff Sgt. Ronen Lubarsky' s parents that changing the panel of judges (appointed to review the case-ed) is not under the prime minister's purview.
Last week, the IDF notified Lubarsky’s parents that the demolition order issued three months ago has been extended and that now the army intends to take down the entire building in which the terrorist's family resides, instead of only tearing down the family's house.
The extended demolition order was issued after Vladimir Lubarsky had sent his letter to the GOC.
Matan Peleg, the CEO of the right-wing Im Tirtzu movement, who accompanies the Lubarsky family said, "Every terrorist that intends to carry out a terror attack against Israel should know his house will be demolished, his family expelled and that a chance exist he will receive the death penalty."
