Israeli Who Shot Palestinian Teenager Is Sentenced to 9 Months in Prison
By ISABEL KERSHNERAPRIL 25, 2018
Continue reading the main storyShare This Page
Share
Tweet
Email
More
Save
Photo
An Israeli border police officer, Ben Deri, center, was sentenced to nine months in prison on Wednesday for the fatal shooting of a Palestinian teenager during a protest in the West Bank in 2014.CreditAhmad Gharabli/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
JERUSALEM — An Israeli court on Wednesday sentenced a border police officer to nine months in prison for the fatal shooting of a Palestinian teenager during a protest in the West Bank in 2014.
The relatively light sentence was handed down as part of a plea deal with the prosecution. The court found the shooting unjustified because the youth was not posing any threat to Israeli forces when he was shot.
The officer, Ben Deri, was convicted of causing death by negligence in the shooting of Nadeem Nawara, 17, who was hit in the chest with a live round. The forces at the scene had been instructed to use only rubber-coated bullets, where necessary, to disperse the stone-throwing demonstrators in Beitunia, a town on the edge of Ramallah in the West Bank.
Nadeem’s father, Siam Nawara, told reporters at the court that the sentence was “unjust.” The prosecution had requested that Mr. Deri be sentenced to 20 to 27 months in prison.
The sentencing comes as the Israeli military finds itself under heightened international scrutiny for its use of live fire over the past month against Palestinian protesters across the fence dividing Israel from Gaza. Israel says it is defending its citizens from violent protesters and a potential mass breach of the border. Critics say it has used excessive force against mostly unarmed demonstrators.
Continue reading the main story
More than three dozen Palestinians have been killed along the Gaza border since March 30, including two 14-year-olds. A Gaza journalist who was shot in mid-April succumbed to his wounds and died on Wednesday, according to Gaza health officials. He was the second Palestinian journalist to have been killed during the Friday protests.
The verdict also came more than a year after a military court convicted Sgt. Elor Azaria of manslaughter for shooting a Palestinian assailant in the head as he lay wounded on the ground in the West Bank city of Hebron, in a case that polarized Israelis. Sergeant Azaria received an 18-month prison sentence that was later reduced to 14 months.
Mr. Deri, who was 21 at the time of the shooting in Beitunia, was initially charged with manslaughter and was accused of deliberately shooting live rounds. Under the plea deal, he admitted to firing a live round by accident after failing to check that his magazine contained only blanks and after failing to load a rubber bullet into an adapter affixed to the muzzle of his rifle.
According to court documents, Mr. Deri expressed regret for aiming …read more
Source:: The Korelin Economics Report
The post Way over the top. Some actions are simply wrong and this is definitely one of them says Big Al appeared first on Junior Mining Analyst.