- JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An
Israeli army captain accused of riddling with bullets the body of a 13-year-old
Palestinian girl in Gaza after she was shot by his troops was cleared by
a court on Tuesday of any wrongdoing, the army said.
-
- The officer, identified only as Captain R., acknowledged
firing two shots from close range into Iman al-Hams after she had been
hit, but denied allegations from some of his men that he then sprayed her
with gunfire from head to toe.
-
- He was charged a year ago with conduct unbecoming an
officer and illegally firing a weapon in the death of Iman al-Hams.
-
- Hams was shot some 20 times on Oct. 5, 2004, near an
army outpost on her way to school in Rafah, a town on Gaza's border with
Egypt that has seen frequent violence during a 5-year-old Palestinian uprising.
-
- Senior officers said the soldiers opened fire because
they believed she was carrying a bomb or had been sent by militants to
lure them out so they could be picked off by snipers.
-
- No bomb was found and the girl's family denied she was
acting on behalf of militants.
-
- "The officer was found innocent of all charges,"
the army said in a statement, expressing "regret at the death of Iman
al-Hams". The Palestinian Authority condemned the verdict as racist.
-
- The army said the military court accepted the officer's
version of events and did not believe some of the witnesses who testified
that Captain R. fired a burst from his automatic rifle into the girl's
body.
-
- BAD BLOOD
-
- In its verdict, the court noted there had been bad blood
between the officer and soldiers under his command which led some of them
"to employ various means to bring about his removal from the platoon",
an army statement said.
-
- Speaking to reporters after his acquittal, Captain R.
said: "I am delighted. There was only one accurate version from the
start -- and that was my own, and I'm glad that is what the court found.
-
- His lawyer said during the trial that Captain R. had
delivered a coup de grace in keeping with the military practice of firing
into the bodies of combatants to ensure they presented no further danger,
but did not continue shooting.
-
- The girl's brother, Ehab al-Hams, 26, accused the army
of a whitewash. "We have never expected to be dealt with fairly by
the Israeli judiciary system," he told Reuters.
-
- The Palestinian Authority issued a statement saying the
ruling would only "encourage occupation soldiers to practise cold-blooded
killing".
-
- The case has revived human rights groups' charges that
Israeli troops use excessive force against Palestinians and are almost
never punished by the military for their actions.
-
- Israel says its soldiers behave ethically in the face
of Palestinian militants who often use suicide tactics, and that all abuse
complaints are investigated. (Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi
in Gaza)
|
