Terror victim's relatives face killer in court
Family of Amit Mantin, who was killed in a 2003 shooting attack near Haifa, files civil suit against Palestinian Authority claiming it was responsible for terrorist's weapons training. Attack originally claimed by Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades
Mantin, 31, a Bezeq Telecommunications technician, was murdered in a 2003 shooting attack in Baka al-Garbiyeh, a city in Israel's Haifa District. His killer, Shadi Juadra, who was 15 at the time, was arrested shortly after by security forces.
The Mantin family filed a civil suit against the Palestinian Authority, claiming Juadra received weapons training by the PA prior to the murder.
During his testimony, Juadra was declared a hostile witness, since he contradicted his original police statement, in which he said that he committed the murder because he wanted to become a PA soldier, but was too young.
"I wanted to become a solider so I could maintain security, but I met with people who wanted me to carry out this attack and they trained me for it. I told all of this to the police. The person who trained me in prison too."
At the, Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.
'I was looking for a Jew with a weapon'
Juadra went on to tell the court that he had met his accomplice three days prior to the attack. Recounting the day of the murder, he said, "I was looking for a Jew that had a weapon. We didn’t want to kill civilians. I saw two people fixing a Bezeq case on the street and I went over to talk to them. One of them got up and I saw he had a weapon.
"I was young. I thought that because he had a gun he was killing Palestinians. Before him, we saw a truck with seven Jews on it, but they weren’t armed, so we didn’t shoot at them. I spoke with the two Bezeq guys to find out if they were Jews. Then we followed them. One went into a store and the other stayed in the car and that's when I killed him."
When asked about the murder itself, Juadra confessed to firing five rounds at Mantin, before he was shot himself, by security forces called to the scene.
The testimony proved too much for Mantin's sister, who fainted. The hearing was stopped while she was cared for.
