By David Lev
Prosecutors have charged a Kafr Kassem resident with murder, several weeks after he ran down and killed a security agent at a checkpoint in Samaria. Arkan Badir, the Arab driver of a van that was transporting illegal Arab workers through the Oranit checkpoint on Road 5 for work in jobs within the 1948 armistice borders, intentionally ran down Lior Farchi and attempted to escape in the hit and run incident.
Badir is being charged with murder, illegal transporting of Arabs from PA-controlled areas, and a variety of traffic offenses. The indictment makes no mention of terror as a motive for his killing Farhi. Numerous hit and run “accidents” have, after investigation, turned out to be terror attacks carried out by Arabs for “nationalistic reasons,” despite claims by the Arabs involved that their actions were just accidental.
“The suspect saw Lior standing in the middle of the road,” the indictment read, describing the circumstances of Badir's killing of the security officer. “Badir realized that Lior was a policeman or security official, and instead of slowing down, he speeded up his vehicle and headed straight for Lior, hitting him at a speed of at least 73 km (44 miles) an hour, without care for killing or injuring him.”
Not only that, said the indictment, but Badir “drove directly into Lior, running him down head-on, and throwing him 64.5 meters (194 feet). Lior was killed directly when he was hit, or very shortly thereafter.”
Badir “intentionally caused the death of Lior as he was carrying a number of illegal Arabs in his vehicle. He ran down Lior in order to enable himself and his passengers to escape punishment. His actions caused the death of the victim, and he did not stop to seek assistance. He also attempted to destroy evidence, attempting to claim that the vehicle had been stolen.”
No date has yet been set for Badir's trial.
