falling in between the two. The results are displayed in Chart 4 (Serious Crimes Court
branches) and Chart 5 (First Instance Courts).
Generally, there appears to be a stark difference in severity of prison sentences imposed by
the Serious Crimes Court and First Instance Courts. The former imposed sentences equal to
the legal minimum in a the majority of cases: this tendency was more evident in branches
such as Tulkarm, Hebron, Jenin and Jericho, where minimal prison sentences were around
80% of the total, while the Ramallah branch imposed sentences equal to the minimum in just
above 50% of cases. On the other hand, First Instance Courts imposed minimal prison
sentences in a much lower percentage of cases: no court imposed minimum sentences in
more than 50% of cases, and some courts such as Tulkarm and Jenin did so in less than 10%
of cases.
Both in Serious Crimes Court and First Instance Court trials, maximum prison sentences
represented a minority. By far, the strictest Court was the Serious Crimes Court branch in
Ramallah, which imposed maximum prison sentences in almost 40% of all convictions.
First Instance Courts tended to impose sentences falling within the minimum and maximum
statutory ranges, a likely sign that such courts put an effort in tailoring the sentencing to the
gravity of the offence and the accused: on the contrary, Serious Crimes Court branches
appeared to lack such approach, always imposing, with rare exceptions, sentences equal
either to the minimum or the maximum.
c) Severity of sentencing by crime type
In Serious Crimes Court judgments, narcotics-related crimes and treason/collaboration with
the enemy were the two crime categories where sentences equal to the legal maximum were
more often imposed, compared to crimes such rape/sexual assault crimes where maximum
Chart 6
Severity of sentencing by crime type - Serious Crimes Court
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Legal maximum
In between
Legal minimum
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