"No indication of offensive purpose": Supreme Court judge again lenient with weapons defendant

Supreme Court Justice Khaled Kaboub released a defendant who held two pistols at his relatives' homes to alternative detention, ruling there was no indication of an offensive purpose. The decision joins a trend of leniency by the judge, also seen in the release of a minor who planned an attack. The article criticizes the ruling against the backdrop of the national fight against weapons offenses.

Supreme Court Justice Khaled Kaboub released a defendant who held two pistols and ammunition, which he hid in the homes of his father and grandmother, to alternative detention. The District Court ordered his detention until the end of proceedings, but Kaboub overturned the decision, reasoning that the weapons were not carried on the defendant's person or in the public space, but in a locked safe, and that no investigative or intelligence indication of an offensive purpose was presented. The decision joins a trend by Justice Kaboub, also evident last March, when he released a 16-year-old minor to house arrest who had watched ISIS content for two years, learned to produce explosives, and planned to carry out an attack. The article, penned by commentator Avishai Grinzaig, sharply criticizes the ruling, presenting it as a negative outlier against the backdrop of the national fight against weapons offenses, in which the Knesset, police, prosecution, and courts are partners. Justice Kaboub justified the minor's release by citing concerns about the impact of detention in a security wing on shaping his character, and a deviation from the principle of non-incarceration.