The lawyer defending Yona Avrushmi, the alleged grenade slayer of Peace Now activist Emil Grunzweig in February, 1983, claimed in Jerusalem district court yesterday that his client was an innocent victim of police scapegoating and contended that the real killer was Amos Schengalov who turned states evidence and was a key witness against Avrushmi.
According to defense attorney Itamar Hacohen, who rested his case yesterday, the police seized Avrushmi to cover up their own failure, after more than a year, to apprehend the guilty party.
There is no written confession by Avrushmi and his oral confession was extracted by illegal means under duress and should not be admitted by the court, Hacohen argued.
There was no eyewitness and no identification of Avrushmi from photographs of the scene of the killing, an anti-war demonstration outside the Prime Ministers Office, Hacohen said. No concrete evidence links Avrushmi to the crime and the prosecution has offered nothing to support the charge that Avrushmi threw the fatal grenade, the lawyer contended.
On the other hand, he claimed there is evidence that Schengalov who sold a grenade to Avrushmi is the man responsible for Grunzweig’s death.
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