A Jerusalem district court is expected to rule Tuesday on whether or not Greek Catholic Archbishop Hillarion Capucci may be tried in East Jerusalem. The court was challenged at the opening session of the trial Friday by Capucci’s lawyer, Aziz Shehadeh, who contended that an Israeli court did not have the authority to sit in East Jerusalem because the city’s political status is in dispute.
State Attorney Gabriel Bach replied that the rules applying in the case were of extra-territorial nature. He pointed out that since the crimes allegedly committed by the accused occurred in territory that is indisputably part of Israel he is not entitled to diplomatic immunity.
Capucci, who heads the Greek Catholic Church in East Jerusalem and the West Bank is charged with transporting and concealing arms and explosives for Arab terrorists in Israel and with having had contacts with terrorist agents in Beirut. He was arrested Aug. 8 and faces a minimum sentence of 15 years if convicted.
RAYA RAPS POPE, MAXIMUS
In a related development, Rev. Joseph M. Raya, the Greek Catholic Archbishop for northern Israel, submitted his resignation Thursday, charging “illegal interference” in the Capucci case by the Patriarch of his church, Maximus V and by Pope Paul VI. “I’m protesting the illegal interference of the highest authorities of the church in the affairs of my diocese,” said Raya, an American citizen who came to Israel in 1968.
He announced that he was returning to the United States “for seclusion, to pray, to think and to consider.” But he hinted that his resignation may have been due to pressure from his church superiors because of recent remarks he made justifying the arrest of Capucci and supporting Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem. Raya himself was involved in a dispute with Israeli authorities two years ago over the right of some of his parishioners to return to the border villages of Baram and Idmit from which they were evacuated for security reasons in 1948. But he has maintained “correct” relations with the authorities.
EFFORT TO INJECT PALESTINIAN ISSUE IN TRIAL
Observers at Capucci’s trial said they had received the impression that his lawyer’s strategy was to broaden the proceedings from a consideration of the charges against his client to a confrontation between Palestinians and the Israeli authorities, Shehadeh, who practices law in Ramallah and who is being assisted in the Capucci trial by a French lawyer, Rolan Dumas, claimed that according to international law, and even Israeli law. East Jerusalem has no clear status. If the government of East Jerusalem is passed tomorrow to the Palestinians or the Jordanians, what validity will today’s trial have? Shehadeh asked.
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