Police seek to block riot indictments

[vierundzwanzig]

By Amir Oren

Police Commissioner Shlomo Aharonishki yesterday ordered his staff to look into legal methods of quashing criminal investigations into the deaths of the 13 Arabs killed by police gunfire during the October 2000 riots.

He is hoping to find a solution similar to that used in the "Bus 300 affair" of 1984, when senior Shin Bet security service officials responsible for the murder of two captured terrorists were preemptively pardoned by the president before even being indicted.

However, such a plan would contradict the recommendations issued by *the Or Commission on Monday, following the conclusion of its three-year inquiry into the riots. The commission said that the Justice Ministry's department for investigating police should open criminal investigations into the deaths.

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