The State's Failure in Protecting State Witnesses

Posted On 02.08.2012
Just recently, yet another assassination of a former state witness took place. Unfortunately, he was obviously not the first one. The Israeli police made a mistake and decided that the deceased simply does not require any special protection.
The victim testified around 4 years ago but wasn't admitted into any witness protection program, despite the fact that an official authority, dealing with similar cases exists, and is in fact well-funded.
The poor lad told the police officers in charge of the investigation everything he knew, and helped them catch the criminals they were after. Nevertheless, he was betrayed by the state that failed to secure its human assets. I truly hope that the officers in charge carefully examine the complete list of other unprotected witnesses as we speak – doing their best to prevent any further loss of lives.
In order to encourage criminals to change their ways and at the same time completely eradicate organized crime, one must understand that abandoning the witnesses and their families is not an option.
The state is ought to do whatever it takes in order to secure the witnesses and equip them and their family members with a new identity – probably outside the country. Moreover, the state has to make sure that they have everything they need – preventing the witnesses from returning to the world of crime, they so much wish to leave behind.
These processes obviously take place in the entire world. They are performed secretly and with great success. In Israel however, as usual, they always say it will be ok, but the final outcome is quite terrible.
Betraying the Collaborators' Trust
Over the years, the state of Israel has made the habit of using collaborators, both from Israel and abroad. However, time after time, the state of Israel has betrayed them and their trust, leaving them defenseless.
The most relevant example is the one of "Tzadal" (South Lebanese Army) that helped Israel in intelligence gathering and combat operations. Many former soldiers of the SLA were abandoned upon IDF's departure from Lebanon, having to cope with the consequences of their actions.
In conclusion, many people in the Israeli security enforcement authorities are ought to do some soul-searching this week. They must be fully aware of the potential horrifying outcomes, derived from not being able to protect state witnesses.
I honestly believe that all state witnesses out there have to be admitted into a witness protection program as soon as possible, because there will always be someone there after them. If the witness assassinated recently, has had a professional security team surrounding him, then he would have probably been still alive.


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