The Palestinian manager of the Gaza branch of World Vision, accused by Israel of diverting millions of agency dollars donated from Australia, the United States and Britain to benefit the Islamist movement Hamas, was arraigned this week at a hearing that was closed to the public.
The decision to close the hearing came despite calls for an open trial from Kevin Jenkins, the president of World Vision, a major Christian aid organisation.
“A trial is legitimate if it is transparent,” Mr Jenkins told the Agence France-Presse news agency in an interview on Monday. “Obviously, with such serious allegations against a staff member, we are calling for him to have a fair hearing.”
Lea Tsemel, the lawyer for the branch manager, Mohammad al-Halabi, said that while closed hearings are not uncommon in cases like this, the proceedings against Halabi were taking place amid unusual secrecy.
Read the report by Diaa Hadid in The Age (from The New York Times).