UN-Truth

Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled today that “disorderly conduct” charges against a soldier who shot a bound and blindfolded protester and his commanding officer who reportedly said “shoot him” — as a joke, but said he never thought the soldier would take him seriously — were much too lenient.

The Supreme Court said that a “disorderly conduct” charge was “unreasonable to an extreme degree,” and ordered that the military prosecution retry the defendants on more severe charges to reflect the gravity of the offenses, the Jerusalem Post reported.

The Palestinian who was shot at close range while blindfolded with his hands bound last July, Ashraf Abu Rahma, and four Israeli human rights organizations — B’Tselem, the Asssociation for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) and Yesh Din – filed the petition to the Surpreme Court, demanding that “the indictments filed against the soldier who fired the shot, Staff Sergeant L., and the platoon commander, lieutenant Col. Omri Borberg, be changed so as to reflect the severity of the offenses. Using a weapon to intimidate, and shooting a handcuffed detainee may amount to abuse of detainee under aggravated circumstances, an offense that carries a penalty of seven years in prison. In the petition, attorneys Limor Yehuda and Dan Yakir from ACRI stated that the decision of the Military Prosecutor to charge the soldier and commander with ‘unbecoming conduct’, an offense which does not appear on criminal records, is highly unreasonable and conveys an alarming message of disrespect for human lives, laying the foundation for future incidents of abuse. The military said the Lieutenant-Colonel, who held the Palestinian as the soldier shot rubber bullets at him, only meant to scare the detainee, and that the decision to prosecute him for disorderly conduct was made based on the evidence”.

In a statement, the four Israeli human rights organizations who had filed the petition to change the indictments “expressed satisfaction with the decision, saying that it conveys a crucial message that protection of human rights must be a primary consideration for law-enforcement agencies. The organizations said they hope that in the future, High Court intervention will not be necessary for military law-enforcement agencies to convey to soldiers and commanders an unequivocal message to safeguard human life and dignity. However, the organizations voiced concern over the fact that even though the abuse of the handcuffed detainee was filmed and caused a public outcry, the High Court’s intervention was necessary for the army to take proper action against the offenders. They said that the many reports regarding violence by security forces in the Occupied Territories , accompanied by feeble responses of the military law-enforcement agencies, raise doubt as to the ability and commitment of the army’s command level to comply with essential moral and legal norms”.

Ashraf Abu Rahma, was related to another Palestinian who died during a demonstration in Bil’in in April by a high-velocity tear gas cannister that hit him directly in the chest,. as we reported earlier here . Basem Abu Rahmeh died within minutes.

Both shootings were videotaped, and can be viewed on Youtube or on the B’Tselem website.

The video of the shooting of bound and blindfolded Ashraf Abu Rahma can be found here.

An AP report using the video footage is available here

Filed under: Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, Register of damages due to The Wall