Israeli officer cleared in shooting of schoolgirl: lawyer

JERUSALEM (AFP) Feb 07, 2005
The case against an Israeli army officer on trial for allegedly pumping bullets into the dead body of a Palestinian schoolgirl at a checkpoint has crumbled after key witnesses retracted their statements, his lawyer said Monday.
Interviewed on Israeli public radio, lawyer Yoav Manni said his client had been effectively cleared of the incident, which occurred on October 5 last year in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, because two witnesses at his military trial had admitted to having deliberately lied.

He added that the two witnesses had sought to mount a vendetta against his client, identified only as "Captain R."

The officer, said to be a member of Israeli's Druze minority, was accused by fellow soldiers of having emptied the magazine of his rifle into the body of 13-year-old Iman al-Hams after she had already been shot dead by soldiers who suspected her of having explosives inside her school satchel.

A statement from the Israeli military confirmed that the officer had been released from detention by the southern command military court after one of the soldiers admitted that he had given false testimony.

www.spacewar.com...

I always new this guy was innocent! How about some appologies from all those on this site that wanted his head!

From your very link:

The statement said the decision to release him "did not in any way suggest an opinion as the guilt or innocence of the officer."

you know my answer to that question.

was accused by fellow soldiers of having emptied the magazine of his rifle into the body of 13-year-old Iman al-Hams after she had already been shot dead by soldiers

but if you ask me,
even if he is innocent,
he must be crazy,
for emptying the entire clip,
into the body of a dead 13 years old girl.
and you call him "a soldier"?

i find that sick.

[edit on 7-2-2005 by AceOfBase]

Originally posted by Souljah
you know my answer to that question.

was accused by fellow soldiers of having emptied the magazine of his rifle into the body of 13-year-old Iman al-Hams after she had already been shot dead by soldiers

but if you ask me,
even if he is innocent,
he must be crazy,
for emptying the entire clip,
into the body of a dead 13 years old girl.
and you call him "a soldier"?

i find that sick.

It never happend.....................duh?

Originally posted by DrHoracid
It never happend.....................duh?

He admitted to shooting her several times and they have the shooting on vdeo.
The fact that he got off shows there's no justice for the Palestinians.

Here's the video from the BBC:
www.informationclearinghouse.info...

Originally posted by quango
From your very link:

The statement said the decision to release him "did not in any way suggest an opinion as the guilt or innocence of the officer."

Thanks for pointing this out, some only see what they want.

Originally posted by AceOfBase
He admitted to shooting her several times .......

Your video is pure BS there ace. The quality of the "shooting" shows nothing and the rest is BS. Typical BBC garbage............

Yeah he was lucky they didn't do him for neglect!

Instaed of wasring an entire clip on that girl he could have taken out a whole school, tsk wat a waste of isreali ammo
Thats the was it works in isreal...


But seriously:

Key witnesses retracting staterments? Sound like the soldiers around him who complianed about his conduct in the first place being pressured into "re-thinking" what they saw.

What a joke this is another state sanctioned terrorist (that's what soldiers are, lets face it) getting away with murder.

BTW i am correct in thinking this is the guy who emptied a clip into a girl at the check point, after she was downed?

Originally posted by Corinthas
Key witnesses retracting staterments? Sound
like the soldiers around him who complianed about
his conduct in the first place being pressured into
"re-thinking" what they saw.

OR ... the 'key witnesses' LIED to begin with and
got caught in their lie. It happens.

Err this is the Isreali army, they say no it means yes!

He did it and he is being protected.

Not the first time either, if im wrong whoops this must have neen the exeption to prove the rule.

Originally posted by DrHoracid
Your video is pure BS there ace. The quality of the "shooting" shows nothing and the rest is BS. Typical BBC garbage............

What about the footage of him admitting under interrogation that he shot her several times?

It's one thing to say the eyewitnesses were lying about the incident but how can you say his own admission was a lie?

Originally posted by AceOfBase

Originally posted by DrHoracid
Your video is pure BS there ace. The quality of the "shooting" shows nothing and the rest is BS. Typical BBC garbage............

What about the footage of him admitting under interrogation that he shot her several times?

It's one thing to say the eyewitnesses were lying about the incident but how can you say his own admission was a lie?

It's a long way from "shot her" sevral times to "emptied his entire clip in her head"...............

Originally posted by Corinthas
Err this is the Isreali army, they say no it means yes!

Tsk tsk. I'm detecting some sweeping generalizations
of an ethnic group. Perhaps even some unsubstantiated
bigotry.

Perhaps you are confused. It's the PALESTINIANS who
have a history of claiming things and then when they are
proven wrong they change their claim. Such as that alleged
massacre that supposedly took place a year or so ago. The
Palestinians claimed ... what ...500 dead in bulldozed homes
or some such thing. They screamed it. Then, when people
went in to check, it was less then 10 dead and most of them
were terrorists who refused to come out of hiding. The
Palestinians never apologized to the world for their lies, but
they just said ... whatever .. and continued on.

Does that help job your memory of what is happening
in the area?

the girl was already dead!!! why not empty the clip into a dead body? should he have practiced on a living person? paper targets are no good either because they cost money....a dead body doesn't cost anything.