Reporters Without Borders gets civil party status in Bourget case

Amid French judicial moves to reactivate an investigation into the near-fatal shooting of Paris Match reporter Jacques-Marie Bourget on 21 October 2000 in Ramallah, on the West Bank, Reporters Without Borders reported today that it has been granted civil party status in the case before a high-level court in Paris. “We are calling for the clarification of the circumstances of the shooting in which Bourget nearly died,” the press freedom organisation said. “He has been demanding justice for five years and it is high time that all the witnesses, without exception, are finally questioned by judicial investigators.” French judge Michèle Ghanassia revived the case on 7 September by issuing a formal written request to the Israeli authorities for the interrogation of the Israeli soldiers who witnessed the shooting, so that she can complete her investigation. Court lawyer Jean Martin notified Ghanassia in writing of Reporters Without Borders' civil party status in the case on 16 September. Bourget was shot in the chest as he was covering clashes between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers. He was rushed to a Ramallah hospital where he underwent a long operation after the Israeli authorities refused to authorize his transfer to a hospital in Jerusalem. The Israelis also blocked his evacuation to France until French President Jacques Chirac personally intervened. The day after the shooting, Bourget was admitted to Beaujon hospital in France where doctors found that the bullet had done serious damage to his left lung, pierced his collarbone and three ribs and injured the left brachial plexus, causing paralysis to his left hand. After the bullet was finally extracted on 29 June 2001, a ballistics examination established that it was Israeli-made and was fired from an M16 assault rifle, a firearm widely used by the Israeli army. This supported Bourget's theory that he was deliberately targeted by an Israeli sniper. The fact that his interpreter, Abdel Hamid Khorti, was gunned down a few days after the shooting of Bourget also supported this theory, he argued. Bourget filed a complaint with a high-level court in Paris in early 2002, claiming he had been the victim of a murder attempt. The counter-terrorist section (SAT) of the Paris criminal investigative police was put in charge of the investigation, in which many witnesses have stated that the shots came from Israeli positions.