Prosecution loses appeal against Hebron soldier’s interim release

The IDF Appeals Court in Tel Aviv Friday confirmed the release of the soldier who shot an injured terrorist in Hebron to “open confinement” at an army base –  in the face of the prosecution’s appeal against the directive handed down a day earlier by IDF Lt. Col. Judge Ronen Shor at a court sitting in Kastina. The judge had ordered the soldier released from prison to 7 days of open confinement. The appeals court confirmed this ruling and reduced it to five days..
Thursday, the prosecution reduced the charge against the soldier from murder to manslaughter, after Judge Shor commented that the evidence presented in the case against the soldier was ambiguous. then on Friday, Appeals Court Judge Brig. Gen. Doron Files further ordered the prosecution to make all the evidence on the episode available to the defense counsel, indicating an attempt at concealment. He explained to the soldier that his five-day open confinement at the Nachshonim camp was in force up until next Tuesday and he still faced trial.
The rulings by the two military courts were a setback to the prestige of the prime minister, defense minister and IDF chief of staff, all of whom insisted on the gravest charges being brought against the soldier for shooting dead a Palestinian terrorist, who was lying prone on the ground, having been injured while attacking a group of soldiers with a knife. The soldier maintained he had posed a continuing threat and his action was justified..