Gunmen storm courtroom, shoot, kill three defendants

JENIN, West Bank -- An enraged mob led by two dozen gunmen, including members of the Palestinian security forces, burst into a heavily guarded courtroom Tuesday and killed three men convicted in a vigilante killing -- highlighting a breakdown of law and order in the Palestinian territories.

The Palestinian justice system was notable for its one-day trials and heavy reliance on security courts, rather than civilian courts, even before the Mideast fighting began 16 months ago. Since then, the legal system has become more chaotic -- as have many other services provided by Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority.

15-year sentences

Many Palestinians acknowledge the problem, but say restrictions imposed by Israel, combined with Israeli bombing raids, have made it impossible for the Palestinian Authority to be a proper government.

On Tuesday, in a court session lasting less than an hour, three members of the Kameel clan pleaded guilty to the murder Friday of another clan member, an officer in the security forces. Two defendants were promptly sentenced to death, but because of their ages -- 18 and 17 -- the sentences were reduced to 15 years each. The third man also received 15 years.

Police had expected trouble, smuggling the defendants into the makeshift courtroom before dawn and dressing them in police uniforms to disguise them, witnesses and security officials said.

On the street, an angry crowd of about 500 people, most members of the large Kameel clan, demanded the death sentence for the three. When someone in the courtroom shouted out the window, "15 years!" the crowd became enraged.

About two dozen gunmen stormed the building. They included members of the Palestinian security forces, though all were in civilian clothes, witnesses said. Most or all of the gunmen were believed to be related to Osama Kameel, the man shot dead Friday.

Police hid the three defendants in a bathroom, but were quickly overpowered by the gunmen who brandished automatic rifles and pistols. The gunmen quickly found the trio and shot them dead, witnesses said.

They then dragged the bodies into the street as the crowd cheered and gunmen fired into the air in celebration. The attackers quickly fled, and the outgunned police did not attempt to arrest them.

'A semi-collapse'

The vigilante killings "show that the Palestinian courts and the judicial system are weak and don't have the confidence of the people," said Ghassan Khatib, a Palestinian political analyst. But, he added, "the Israeli restrictions on Palestinians are causing a semi-collapse of our system."

The public was barred from the trial, held in a makeshift courtroom in Jenin's Chamber of Commerce building, a site selected because Israel has bombed most government buildings, including courthouses, to rubble. Israel carried out the strikes in retaliation for Palestinian attacks, saying many of the deadliest suicide bombings have originated in Jenin, in the northern West Bank.

The killings marked the latest bloody chapter of violent death and retribution within the Kameel clan.

It began in 1988, shortly after the outbreak of the first Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, when Osama Kameel, an activist in Arafat's Fatah movement, began killing suspected collaborators with Israel.