|
Israel clears colonel over Palestinian shooting death
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] An Israeli colonel has been cleared of any criminal charges after shooting dead a Paleostinian teen who stoned his jeep in the West Bank last year, the military said Monday.A rights group that distributed a video showing the shooting denounced the decision, which comes amid controversy over a separate killing of a Paleostinian by an Israeli soldier last month. Colonel Israel Shomer had been under investigation for the July 3 shooting near Qalandia checkpoint, south of Ramallah, that killed Mohammad Kasba, 17. The army said at the time Shomer and another soldier had opened fire when the vehicle was damaged "and in response to the imminent danger". But a video distributed by the B’Tselem human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... group appeared to dispute the claim, showing the shots were fired at Kasba while he seemed to be running away after stoning the jeep. The army said a Paleostinian had thrown a rock through the windshield of Shomer’s vehicle and that in response the officer "exited his vehicle and had gun sex and towards the lower extremities of the assailant." "However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... due to the reality of the operational situation, the shots resulted in the death of the assailant," it said in a statement. "The military advocate general concluded that the shooting of the perpetrator was not criminal and the event does not justify taking legal action against the officer." B’Tselem condemned the army’s decision, which it called "an integral part of the whitewash mechanism which is Israel’s military investigative system." It said the "assertion that the firing was legal, since the officer claimed that he aimed at the youth’s legs but missed, clearly indicates the investigative system’s willingness to ignore the law and the open-fire regulations." Posted by: Fred 2016-04-12 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=452327 |