The murder trial of Yitzhak Rabin’s confessed assassin was set to resume this week, after the High Court of Justice rejected a petition from Yigal Amir’s lawyers to postphone the deliberations.
Amir’s lawyers had sought to have the trial, set to begin Tuesday, postponed until after the state commission of inquiry into the assassination submitted its findings.
The Tel Aviv District Court, where the Amir trial is taking place, had rejected the lawyers’ request, saying that the results of the Shamgar inquiry would not affect the trial.
Jonathan Ray Goldberg, one of the attorneys representing Amir, said his client would not submit a plea Tuesday because not enough information from the prosecution’s side of the case had been submitted.
Amir’s trial was to resume after a recess of one month, which was granted to give the defense time to review prosecution evidence.
Amir, a religious nationalist, confessed to police that he shot the prime minister when he left a Nov. 4 peace rally in Tel Aviv. The assassination was also filmed by an amateur photographer who was at the event.
Earlier this month, Amir told two investigators from the Shamgar inquiry that he had not intended to kill Rabin. He said he only wanted to paralyze him in order to force him out of the political arena.
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