Judge Abu Shrar calls upon the judges to take into Account Civil Peace when reviewing the Acquittal of Criminal Detainees

His Excellency Judge Issa Abu Shrar, Head of the Supreme Court and Chief Justice called upon heads of courts and judges to draw on their evaluative authority when reviewing acquittal cases submitted before the courts. Abu Shrar said that complacency in the acquittal standards in homicides and the rest of serious cases would infringe upon the interest of civil peace and the society’s security and stability indicating that reconciliations and extinguishing one’s personal right would impact the degree of punishment when issuing the verdict and not when reviewing acquittal requests.
His Excellency’s words came during a meeting which he held today, Tuesday with the Heads of the West Bank Courts of Appeal and First Instance on the occasion of the new judicial year which happens to be today. During the meeting, he addressed some issues of concern to the courts and which help reactivate their role in achieving justice in the society. He also listened to the demands and urgent needs of the courts for the new judicial year.
Abu Shrar demanded of the First Instance Courts to draw up work strategies that would speed up the disposal of crime cases reviewed before the courts indicating in this respect that the Supreme Judicial Council had decided in its judicial formation which he announced yesterday upon the formation of two crime commissions in each of the courts of Nablus and Ramallah. One crime commission was designated in the rest of the West Bank courts in addition to mandating new conciliation judges for the courts of First Instance in the present formation, and after the new group of conciliation judges who are going to be distributed among the courts soon.
Judge Abu Shrar reiterated that it was essential that judges deal with advocates with neutrality and that they should be equally remote from all parties warning that any discriminatory treatment of an advocate might come to light. He demanded at the same time of all judges to be patient and to be magnanimous in their treatment of the public unless their conduct infringed upon rules of court respect.
As regards the relationship with the Prosecution, Judge Abu Shrar called for giving the Prosecution its right as stipulated in the law and to take its opinion in the acquittal cases taking into consideration that its opinion is not binding for the judge. Abu Shrar called for monitoring investigation procedures at the Prosecution. He also demanded of heads of courts to decide upon a mechanism to deal with it.
Abu Shrar called upon the heads of courts to play a proactive role in monitoring the work of judges and court employees whom they oversee through regular periodic meetings with court judges, and to check upon court facilities on a daily level and to check upon the registrars’ files and to provide courts with their needs.
It should be mentioned that the new judicial year started today in all the courts of the West Bank as 146 judges in the West Bank out of 190 judges working in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip started working in two Appeal courts and eight First Instance courts and 12 Conciliation Courts all of them in the West Bank, while the judges of Gaza working under the Supreme Judicial Council were not able to go to their work in the courts due to the continued stripping of the authority of the Supreme Judicial Council