Soldier jailed for lying to court in probe of British activist's killing


Haaretz
 Date: 01-10-05

By Amos Harel

A soldier who lied to Military Police and his commanding officers during a probe into the death of an International Solidarity Mission volunteer, has been jailed for five and a half months.

On April 11, 2003, ISM volunteer Tom Hurndall was struck by a bullet, with Palestinian and foreign witnesses saying the shots had come from an IDF position and were unprovoked. Hurndall was fatally wounded and died a year later.

At first, the IDF completely denied the accusations by the ISM activists. On the day after the incident, a soldier from the Desert Reconnaissance Brigade said he fired when he saw someone armed with a pistol shooting at the outpost. Another of the soldiers in the pillbox with him backed up that version of events.

But a Military Police investigation eight months later, prompted by pressure from the British authorities on Israel about the incident, found that the two soldiers had been lying and that the British citizen was unarmed when he was shot.

Both soldiers were prosecuted. The soldier suspected of shooting is still on trial, and his colleague was tried and judged in a Southern Command court martial for lying during a debriefing.

The presiding judge Lt. Col. Aharon Mishnayot said, "This is a grave crime that can harm the credibility that exists between the army and its soldiers, and in this specific case was meant to obstruct a Military Police inquiry.

Source

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