IDF asks to exhume remains of Gaza girl in 'confirmed kill' case

[Violet_Crumble]

IDF prosecutors have asked to to exhume the remains of a 13-year-old Palestinian girl whose death near a southern Gaza outpost is at the center of a storm of over suspicions that an army officer "confirmed" her killing by firing a burst of automatic fire into her prone body, Israel Radio reported Thursday.

On October 5 Iman Alhamas was shot dead by soldiers from the Givati Brigade near the IDF Girit outpost near Tel el-Sultan in western Rafah in the Strip.

Military Police have arrested the company's company commander on suspicion that he shot dead the girl at close range, after she had already been shot by troops and was laying on the ground.

His case is beieved to be the first time an officer is to be brought up on charges of the alleged practice of "confirming a kill," or firing at a person already wounded and incapacitated by IDF fire.

The prosecution requested the victim?s family?s authorization to exhume the body in order to conduct an autopsy to check the range of the shooting and the types of bullets.

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/503300.html

Also from Ha'aretz:

In a separate development, the military prosecution announced Wednesday that it will bring another officer, Captain R., to trial for his part in the fatal shooting of a wounded 13-year-old girl in Rafah. The incident took place at the beginning of October, and the military prosecution said the trial would begin next Monday.

R. is being held in custody. He will be charged with illegal use of a weapon, rather than manslaughter, and with obstruction of justice.

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=502971&contrassID=1&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

[Englander]

1. Another case of IDF taking the piss,I imagine....

the chances of this actually happening are slim;

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apmideast_story.asp?category=1107&slug=Israel%20Girl%20Shot

"JERUSALEM -- The Israeli military wants to exhume the body of a 13-year-old Palestinian girl as part of its investigation into an officer accused of shooting her repeatedly at point-blank range to make sure she was dead, a lawyer for the girl's family said Thursday.

However, the family has so far refused the request. Autopsies are forbidden under Islamic law.

"Also, the family does not have much faith in the army," said Tzemel. "They fear the army wants to use the autopsy to clear the officer."

Tzemel said the army had agreed to have Palestinian and Arab pathologists present should the autopsy take place."

[Violet_Crumble]

3. An autopsy all for what?

To watch her murderer walk away from a charge of 'illegal use of a firearm'? Is that all a 13yr old schoolgirl's life is worth? Is that all the US troop who killed the injured Iraqi will get? A slap on the wrist on a much lesser charge of illegal use of a firearm, even though what was done in both cases was a war crime?

Violet...

[Englander]

4. Of course,the only "crime" this officer & the Fallujah marine..

are guilty of is being caught red-handed,revealing the reality of the two occupations.It must be very confusing for these guys,I mean they're only following orders,doing what they're trained to do,how can they be guilty of a war crime?

[pelsar]

5. very different situations

killing the iraqi in the mosque who was pretending to be dead(if i understand the situation) is far different then going up to a mortally wounded little girl and emptying a magazine at her.

"following orders" or doing what I was taught is not an excuse either, as both armies have also have rules in use of fire arms.

but just to continue, the marine was probably justified whereas the IDF officer was probably not, and if you cant tell the difference it means you understand little of armies/combat/people and how they operate under pressure

[Scurrilous]

2. Platoon commander suspected of verifying death of girl fails polygraph

http://www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=11721

Captain R’ answered untruthfully to the two central questions of the case. Will be charged with illegal use of a firearm and obstruction of justice.

<snip>

"The Platoon Commander suspected of killing and verifying the death of a 14-year-old Palestinian girl in Rafah,has failed the lie-detector test in the two central questions regarding the affair, senior IDF officials told NRG Maariv.

The two questions were, did he fire at the girl and did he see her? According to the results of the polygraph, Captain R’’s answers were not truthful."