TEL AVIV, Jan. 28 -- The right-wing extremist who has confessed to killing Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin complained in court Sunday that he was being treated as a criminal instead of as an ideologically motivated assassin. Yigal Amir took the cudgels of his defense and cross-examined prosecution witnesses as one defense attorney quit and the second admitted he hadn't prepared for the hearings. The court admonished the attorneys and offered to have the state pay an attorney who would help the defense. The 25-year-old university law student, who smirked in earlier court sessions, appeared to try to control himself, once running his right hand down his grinning face to obscure a smile. Amir told the court, 'Sentence me to life imprisonment, but tell the world the truth. I am not a criminal. I did it because of NEWLN:my> ideology.' Amir said he had killed the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate on Nov. 4 to scuttle the peace process. When cross-examining police deputy inspector Moti Naphtali, who had questioned him the night of the assassination, Amir asked whether he had seemed to his interrogator a criminal driven 'by passion, vengeance or hatred...or cold as a person who kills an NEWLN:enemy> terrorist in Lebanon,' apparently comparing himself to an Israeli soldier on duty. 'Cold as a fish,' the officer replied. Naphtali recalled that at the interrogation Amir had asked for cookies with his tea, and when told there were none suggested they drink a toast. Amir watched intently when police presented the murder weapon, a black 9 mm Baretta handgun, and small plastic container with two bullets extricated from Rabin's body.
The head of the National Forensic Institute, Yehuda Hiss, described to the judges how Amir's hollow-point bullets enlarged as they tore through the prime minister's back. Hiss said even one of the bullets would have been fatal, despite Amir's claim at the opening of the trial last week he was only trying to cripple Rabin. At the opening of Sunday's session, attorney Mordechai Ofri asked to be excused from the trial because 'other elements' were involved. He was apparently alluding to unconfirmed reports that North American right-wing extremists were footing the defense bill. Ofri said he asked the family to pay for the testimony of an expert psychologist. 'The family sent me to someone else. I am not ready to turn to anyhow else,' he stressed. Remaining attorney, Texas-born Jonathan Ray Goldberg, asked the state to cover the defense costs because the money he had expected from abroad 'did not arrive. People in the government are preventing the transfer,' he claimed. Goldberg declined to elaborate. 'You are talking in riddles,' the exasperated presiding judge, Edmond Levy said. Throughout the trial Goldberg declined to cross-examine witnesses and Levy lost his temper when the attorney repeated his request to postpone the trial. 'The negligence with which you are handling this defense from the beginning is scandalous,' Levy blasted. 'You had a whole month. If I were defending the case I wouldn't sleep nights studying every comma in this file. You stand there and look at us with sheep's eyes. 'We are going out of our way to give the defendant every right he has, and those who are responsible for it (the defense) are doing nothing,' Levy shouted. Amir paled and cringed. Saviona Rotlevy, the female judge at the three panel bench, gave Levy a glass of water, and he apologized for the outburst. He suggested Goldberg find a lawyer who would help him, and offered to ask the Israel Bar Association to help find a lawyer. The state will cover the costs, Levy promised. 'Any lawyer,' he added. The trial is scheduled to continue Monday.
