Chapter Seven
“We took sweet counsel together, in the house
of God we walked with the throng.”
Yiftach jotted down some notes for himself along the margins of his papers, trying to think of all the possible answers in response to the legal arguments that would be raised by the defense.
Attorney Elbaz, typically late, entered the courtroom with a string of lawyers following behind, carrying files and binders.
Elbaz, in his fifties, was bald, fat, short and dark-skinned.
His disproportionately big head and his greenish complexion gave him the appearance of a frog plotting something wicked.
He also had a terrible odor. And that devilish, disgusting, repulsive smile of his never left his face.
However, he was most renowned for his glass eye—the left one—a memento from one of the battles he had fought in as a young soldier.
Scandals of corruption, client fraud, illegal fees and other such delights were linked to his name more than once.
Such is usually the case—one who scrupulously upholds the minor laws finds it easy to break the significant ones.
“Attorney Posner! Good to have you home again,” Elbaz called to him, as one who habitually ignores the difference between truth and falsehood. “You look great, Yiftach,” he added with unabashed flattery.
Yiftach stood up from the creaky wooden bench and they shook hands firmly, although they knew each other only in passing.
“Good to see you, Arieh. You haven’t changed…
” Yiftach indicated Melody with his hand, “I’d like to introduce you to Attorney Geva, who joined us this week after completing her internship with Agam-Rozner. ”
“Pleased to meet you,” Melody said, standing up. They shook hands as Elbaz’s gaze swept her body, and his one eye twinkled with obvious pleasure.
“Most pleased…” Elbaz replied with his characteristically strange pleasantness while eyeing her in a conspicuously sexist way.
Yiftach imagined himself sticking a rusty screwdriver in his face and gouging out his other eye.
“And you?” Elbaz went on, “what are you doing?” he snapped at his helpers.
“Why are you standing around like that?” he continued to reprimand them, not thinking for a moment to introduce them to his colleagues.
“Zucker!” he turned to one attorney, “c’mon, c’mon, take out the files, start arranging them on the table, the judges will enter any minute now.
And Moti,” he turned to one of his interns.
“Dudi…” the young intern corrected him in an obedient, subservient tone.
“Dudi, of course, please go over to the cafeteria and get me a small bottle of water… I always have to tell them what to do… they don’t understand anything by themselves,” he explained to Yiftach, and his mindless and condescending words sounded as if he had often uttered them before.
The defendant, police officer Ronen Raviv, entered the courtroom through the prisoners’ entrance, escorted by two policemen. His arrival awakened the reporters from their morning slumber. They jumped up and ran over to him with their questions.
“Excuse me,” Elbaz said to Yiftach and Melody and quickly made his way towards his client. Raviv, who had been briefed earlier by Elbaz, did not say a word to the reporters.
Melody held the indictment in front of her.
“They are going to claim compulsion,” she whispered to Yiftach, “you know… the compulsion defense in Section 34-L of the Penal Code that determines that one cannot be responsible for a criminal act that was forced upon him while under imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to himself or others and, therefore, was compelled to do so. This section is relevant to situations in which one carries out an act that is considered criminal, but does so under duress or coercion that neutralizes the perpetrator’s will and eliminates his ability to choose.
Generally, in such cases, the perpetrator cannot be held criminally responsible. ”
“I know that, it’s obvious,” Yiftach continued reading a new court decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that addressed a situation similar to that of police officer Raviv.
“Yiftach, seriously,” Melody sounded concerned, “this is a classic case of compulsion defense! What magic trick do you have up your sleeve?”
Three judges entered the courtroom and everyone rose to their feet.
The session began and, from the start, Elbaz claimed that the accuser’s arguments should be rejected out of hand since the compulsion defense stands in his client’s favor.
Yiftach, like a taut spring, burst into his words while holding in his hand three American court decisions in which criminal liability was imposed in similar circumstances.
The three judges, and Elbaz himself, looked surprised and exchanged quick glances among them.
Indeed, the ruling of the United States Supreme Court is important—it indicates how the world copes with similar legal issues—but why seek answers across the Atlantic Ocean when the answer lies just across the street?
The hearing dragged on and spilled over into the time of the hearing to follow.
“The court will resume next Wednesday,” the leading judge announced, “and please, be here at precisely nine-thirty a.m.” he concluded, striking the gavel.
Yiftach and Melody returned to the office. Melody went to the library to find materials Yiftach had asked for, while he sat down facing the computer screen.
Weissman showed up. “So how did it go?” he inquired.
“We’re just beginning, not much has happened as yet. Elbaz claimed compulsion defense.”
“Obviously…” Weissman leaned against the doorpost and folded his arms.
“Yes… totally expected. I presented to the judges three rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court that place responsibility in such circumstances…”
“The U.S. Supreme Court?” Weissman questioned, “and what about Section 34-O of the Penal Code?” lines of concern furrowed his forehead.
“34-O…” Yiftach raised his head sharply and his eyes widened in horror.
“The obligation to withstand a danger or a threat…” He covered his face with both his hands and hissed weakly: “How did that escape me? Section 34-O of the Penal Code includes a clause under compulsion defense which defines situations in which this defense is inapplicable. According to this addendum, the perpetrator cannot receive protection and is obligated to carry criminal responsibility if his presence in the dangerous circumstances was mandatory. Such obligation can stem from a law or a position, such as a prison guard or a policeman. How did I forget that?”
Weissman approached Yiftach and placed a hand on his shoulder. His anger was milder than expected. Yiftach didn’t move. “What’s going on? For weeks now you’re not really here. You are present in body, but your mind is somewhere far away.” A bleak cloud filled the room.
After a silence that seemed like eternity, Yiftach raised his head and said: “I must get out and clear my head. I will ask Julie to mark down a day’s vacation on my way out.”
Weissman narrowed his eyes and looked at Yiftach long and hard. “Only on condition, that till the end of the week, you will provide me with some explanations… and you needn’t say anything to Julie on your way out.”
Yiftach collected his stuff and got into the car.
He drove to Tel Aviv and continued until he reached the beach.
Everyone around him seemed happy and free of worries.
For a moment, he was tempted to remove his clothes and run naked along the waterline, like a madman.
He removed his shoes and sat on the yellow sand in his pressed, expensive suit.
Patches of blue sky peeped between the clouds, patterns of white and blue that slowly changed shape with the wind.
He looked up and let his eyes lose focus.
He placed his feet in the water and the waves whished between his toes.
He lay back on the sand and let his eyes close.
It was 2:30 in the afternoon. The sounds of the sea and the bathers grew distant and faded away until there was only a fragile silence around him.
He remained lying on the sand for forty minutes and tried to free his mind of that same stubborn thought, but to no avail.
Now he only hoped that Weissman wouldn’t think he had lost his mind.
He hoped that his boss would fully understand the immense potential hidden in the brilliant idea he had masterminded, and that he would agree to join him in a move that could change the lives of all the people on Earth.
There was no longer anything sweet about the secret, and he can no longer keep it to himself, he thought.
He will soon explain everything to Weissman.