Israel seeks more jail time for Briton's killer
Reuters
Date: 08-30-05
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli army prosecutors said on Tuesday they had appealed to a military court to increase significantly an eight-year prison term imposed on a soldier who killed a pro-Palestinian British activist in the Gaza Strip.
Taysir Hayb, a Bedouin Arab soldier, was convicted in June of manslaughter for shooting dead Tom Hurndall, an activist with the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement who died in London in January 2004 after lying in a coma for nine months.
The court sentenced Hayb, an ex-sergeant, to seven years in prison for manslaughter and one year behind bars for obstruction of justice. He had faced a maximum 27-year term.
In a statement, the army said the chief military prosecutor had filed an appeal against "the light nature of the sentence for manslaughter and is requesting a meaningful and recognizable increase in the sentence."
The sentence imposed earlier this month was the harshest punishment meted out to an Israeli soldier for actions in a combat zone since the start of a Palestinian uprising nearly five years ago.
Hayb shot 22-year-old Hurndall as he helped Palestinian children cross a street to avoid gunfire in Rafah in the occupied Gaza Strip. The southern town has been a flashpoint of Israeli-Palestinian violence during the uprising.
Hayb, who initially had said he fired only at Palestinian gunmen, ultimately told investigators he had shot at Hurndall but intended only to scare him, not kill him.
Judges determined that Hayb, 22, was a crack marksman with a telescopic rifle sight and a clear line of fire toward Hurndall, who was wearing a bright orange jacket donned to distinguish himself from combatants.
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