3 IDF soldiers charged with beating Palestinian man in Hebron

Three IDF soldiers were indicted by a military court on Thursday סn charges of abusing an arrested Palestinian man, Hebrew media reported.

The investigation into the incident in the West Bank city of Hebron was first opened in September, after the soldiers were filmed and photographed kicking the man and hitting him on the head, then manhandling him to the ground before detaining him.

The army said at the time that the Palestinian man refused an inspection by the soldiers.

However, the main evidence leading to the filing of charges against the troops was not the video and photographs of the incident, but rather the testimony to the Military Police of a fellow soldier from their company.

The witness told investigators that the three continued to hit and verbally abuse the arrested man in a military vehicle after he was already detained and in handcuffs, according to Hebrew media reports.

Military prosecutors requested that the soldiers, who were arrested last week, be detained for the duration of the trial due to the seriousness of the charges. The court is expected to rule on the prosecution’s request on Sunday.

A statement from the defense team called for the charges against them to be dismissed, as “the indictment is based on [the] testimony of a soldier who retracted his mistaken claims” and said that the soldiers were attacked first by the Palestinian man.