Border police officer convicted of killing Palestinian in Jaffa - Haaretz

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Border police officer convicted of killing Palestinian in Jaffa

By Ofra Edelman and Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondents

Tags: Israel, Border police, Jaffa

A former Border Police officer was convicted of manslaughter on Wednesday in the death of a Palestinian man during an October 2006 search in Jaffa for people without entry permits. Tomer Avraham was convicted in Tel Aviv District Court of killing Iyad Abu Ra'iya of the West Bank town of Tarqumiya, as well as aggravated assault and battery.

This is the first time since at least 2000 that a police officer has been convicted of killing a Palestinian or Israeli Arab within Israel. No officers were convicted of killing in the wake of the events of October 2000, when 12 Arab Israeli citizens and one Palestinian were shot to death by Israeli police officers.

According to the verdict, on October 4, 2006, a border police unit located three Palestinians living at a construction site in Jaffa, including the victim and his brother. The officers took the men to a room at the site, beat them with clubs and sat them down against a wall, leaving Avraham to guard them. Avraham cocked his weapon and aimed it at Abu Ra'iya. At some point he pulled the trigger, apparently while he was momentarily distracted, killing Abu Ra'iya.

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Avraham claimed at first that Abu Ra'iya had tried to grab his gun and that he had acted in self-defense, but he later admitted that he had cocked his weapon without any provocation.

"This is one of those cases that acts as a warning sign and makes it clear that the use of arms, even by the security forces, should only be under appropriate circumstances and when necessary," said attorney Moshe Saada of the Police Investigations Department, who prosecuted the case, on Wednesday. He added that the PID takes the issue of the improper use of weapons by police officers seriously, especially when it results in injuries.

Judge Oded Mudrik noted that Avraham's awareness of the fact that he was holding a gun, that he had loaded it and aimed it at another person without checking whether the safety was on fulfilled both the factual and emotional conditions of the crime of manslaughter.

"Not only do I disagree with the result, I am very worried by it," said Koby Kamar, Avraham's attorney, after the verdict was read out. He said that defining his client's actions as manslaughter means that soldiers could be subject to criminal prosecution and thus might avoid shooting.
Mossawa Center, The Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens in Israel, which has been monitoring this case and others involving the killing of Israeli Arabs, welcomed the conviction and called on the authorities to deal harshly with the 22 police officers that have shot and killed Arab citizens but are still serving in the police

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1.	odd comment	01:23	\|	realism	17/01/08

2.	Oh come on, where is the justice?	01:36	\|	Motti	17/01/08

3.	Seems to be an appropriate ruling	02:58	\|	Gina	17/01/08

4.	Re #2 `Oh come on...`	03:01	\|	Colin Wright	17/01/08

5.	No reason to believe it wasn`t an accident	04:56	\|	Efox	17/01/08

6.	Israel has many racist-terrorists (settlers,IDF,etc) to deal with	08:21	\|	anti-racist	17/01/08

7.	Tip of the iceberg	09:09	\|	Natallie Durson	17/01/08

8.	Tomer Avraham is a jewish terrorist, he should rot in jail	15:37	\|	Rami	17/01/08

9.	It`s a fact that many such case go undocumented..	15:39	\|	Rami	17/01/08

10.	What about the beating with batons	19:21	\|	Detlef	17/01/08

11.	efox 4	01:49	\|	realism	18/01/08

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