The reexamination, he said, was an attempt to "cover up the Or Commission findings," which found cause for further investigations of the behavior of some of the police officers involved in the riots.
Barakeh also criticized Attorney General Menachem Mazuz for saying that government officials could exhume the bodies of Arab victims of the October 2000 riots, even if the families object.
"Mazuz's declarations show that he plans to circumvent the High Court and cleanse himself of the guilt [incurred through] cooperation with the Police Investigations Department," Barakeh said.
Mazuz said Thursday the State Prosecutor's Office is likely to reopen the investigation of police officers suspected of involvement in the deaths of 12 Israeli Arabs and a Palestinian if its examination of the decision not to indict them makes such a move necessary.
Earlier in the day, the Justice Ministry announced that it had decided to examine the PID findings, which had aroused public outcry among Israeli Arabs, even though no formal appeal has been made. Nonetheless, the Justice Ministry said in a statement that it was using "appeal proceedings" to review the investigation. An appeal is legally supposed to be decided within six months, but the attorney general has the authority to extend the deadline.
"Since the representatives of the families have already announced that they might not appeal, we have decided to examine our conclusions as though an appeal had been made," PID head Herzl Shviro told Channel 2 on Thursday.
However, the committee of parents of those killed in the riots decried the announcement on Thursday, calling the reexamination a "dirty trick" aimed at hobbling their struggle to get the police officers indicted. "This is a pitiable attempt by the justice minister and the attorney general to damage our just struggle to bring the criminal police officers to trial," said the chairman of the parents committee, Hassan Asala, whose son Asil was killed in the riots.
Mazuz, meanwhile, said justice officials may consider conducting autopsies on people killed in the riots even if their families oppose the move.
"The decision to demand exhumation and autopsy is certainly a possibility," he said. "I would be happy if the families that refused throughout to agree to an autopsy will change their minds in instances in which there is a reasonable chance that an autopsy will advance the investigation. If not, we will need to consider whether to ask the court, in opposition to the family's position."
Mazuz said that if the investigation is reopened, additional witnesses will likely be called to give testimony, and the policemen suspected of involvement in the deaths of those killed in the riots will probably be called in for further questioning. Ballistics checks are also possible, he said.
"In the framework of an appeal, it occasionally happens that you reach the conclusion that it is necessary to complete the investigation," Mazuz said. "The moment there is an appeal, you check all the material, and if you reach the conclusion that something is missing in the investigation, you complete it." As for the chances of a reversal, Mazuz said, "There have been appeals that led to decisions to indict when previously the decision was to close [the case]."
Mazuz also said he had considered reexamining the findings even before he expressed public support for the move last week, and that he is weighing the possibility of keeping State Prosecutor Eran Shendar out of the reexamination because Shendar led the Police Investigations Department at the time of the riots.
The Justice Ministry announced Thursday that the deputy state prosecutor for special issues, Shai Nitzan, will be responsible for the appeal. The final decision, however, will be made by Mazuz after he sees all the findings.
Mazuz is considering inviting Israeli Arab leaders for a meeting to discuss the investigation, in an effort to create dialogue and remove the mistrust between Israeli Arabs and law enforcement authorities.
"I understand the feeling that there was a very difficult event here and a very difficult result based on the absence of indictments against anyone, even though a government inquiry panel [the Or Commission] pointed out potential suspects," said Mazuz.
The attorney general said this was not the first time that public outcry has led the judicial establishment to review its decisions.
"The decision to conduct an appeal was very simple," he said. "On the one hand, this is a decision with far-reaching legal, social and public ramifications that deal with Jewish-Arab relations, and that's why I thought that such a decision must be reexamined in any case. Since [the legal center] Adalah, which represents the families, announced that it was not planning to appeal, I decided that in any case we would examine ourselves again, even if the families don't file an appeal. This is not an exceptional case or the first one in which we relate to requests by public figures as an appeal."
However, Adalah has recently asked to see the material used in the investigation, and Mazuz is slated to meet next week with the heads of the state prosecution to decide which material will be submitted to Adalah. Mazuz said he would welcome a formal appeal.
