CHAPTER ONE. Cases and defendants The present chapter will illustrate the type of cases dealt with by First Instance Courts and Serious Crimes Court branches during the monitoring period. A number of indicators are taken into account, including types of crimes tried, judgments issued, defendants and their gender, and sentencing. 1. Types of crimes tried According to Decree-Law No. (9) of 2018, the Serious Crimes Court has jurisdiction over five categories of grave criminal offences: 1) murder; 2) Rape, indecent assault and criminal kidnapping; 3) Crimes against internal and external security of the State; 4) Narcotics-related crimes; 5) Selling or renting any part of the Palestinian territories to enemy states or their citizens. The Court has also jurisdiction to prosecute individuals who attempted or incited others to commit the above crimes, as well as perpetrators of crimes committed in close connection with the crimes above. The Court was dissolved by presidential Decree Law on June 19, 2019; cases pending before the Serious Crimes Court at the date were transferred to First Instance Courts. Data that ISTIQLAL obtained through the High Judicial Council shows that over one third of the cases tried by the Serious Crimes Court branches in the West Bank are murder and attempted murder cases Chart 1 - Charges before the Serious Crimes (respectively 8,9% Court and 24,5% of all Other cases). NarcoticsMurder related offences NarcoticsTreason/Commu related crimes nication with were the most the enemy common type of cases tried (25,8% of all cases). Rape Riot incitement and sexual assault cases constituted approximately 14% of all cases, while treason Rape/Sexual assault (including land selling), Attempted numbered 8% of murder Theft the total. Serious Crimes Court branches were also seized with a large number of theft cases (11% of the total), a crime which in principle does not fall within the jurisdiction of the Court and may 14