A Border Police officer convicted of causing the death of a Palestinian teenager in 2014 submits a request to President Reuven Rivlin for a pardon.
Ben Deri was convicted in April and handed a nine-month sentence for using live ammunition instead of rubber bullets when breaking up a demonstration in the West Bank village of Beitunia, during which he fatally shot a 17-year-old Palestinian in the chest.
A court in August doubled the length of Deri’s prison term, arguing the original sentence didn’t reflect the severity of his actions.
“The soldier acted out of a feeling of a sense of mission for the state and its inhabitants. It is not fitting or just that the same state for which he was willing to risk his life would deprive him of his freedom,” Army Radio quotes the letter submitted by Deri’s lawyer as saying.
Ben Deri, center, a Border Police officer accused of shooting to death a Palestinian man during clashes in Betunia in the West Bank, seen during a hearing at the District Court in Jerusalem on December 30, 2014. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
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From the Liveblog of
Thursday, October 4, 2018
