The military court in Ramallah has begun the trial of 14 Palestinian security personnel accused of killing the political activist Nizar Banat, who has sharply criticized the PA and its leader on social media.  It seems that the PA will try to dissolve the sentence imposed due to international pressure and Palestinian street rage.

It is highly doubtful that the trial will calm the popular outrage in the Palestinian street over the killing of Nizar Banat, whom many in the region consider a cold-blooded assassination. Nizar Banat was openly critical of the dictatorial regime of Mahmoud Abbas.

Prior to the beginning of the trial, the PA tried to reach a settlement with the Banat family in exchange for the dropping of charges, offering them a large sum of money as well as jobs within the PA, but all proposals were rejected outright.

Now the PA is trying a new method and that is to put pressure on the family, a few days ago the security apparatus stopped the family member Hussein Banat, who is the main witness to the incident of killing Nizar Banat, on the charge that he fired a weapon at the house of Thayer Abu Joyad, One of the 14 defendants in the killing of Nizar Banat.

Nizar Banat's family has boycotted the trial and says it is merely theatrics as the military prosecutor's office has not filed an official indictment against any senior officer or politician. It is clear that the order to kill Nizar Banat came from the higher echelons of the PA, and the PA did not take any steps to stop the reoccurrence of such cases in the future.

Even after the assassination of Nizar Banat, the PA has continued to use its security forces to violently suppress demonstrations calling for the resignation of PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the punishment of the killers, and the establishment of an international commission of inquiry into the affair.