Family of ‘Murdered’ Terrorist to Sue State
The family of Al Fatah a-Sharif, the terrorist who was shot and later killed in Chevron on Purim morning after he tried to stab IDF soldiers, is planning to sue the state, both in Israeli and international courts over the “murder” of their son. A spokesperson for the family said that the autopsy conducted earlier this week “proves” that a-Sharif was “executed,” and that his killers “needed to be brought to justice,” Israel Radio reported Tuesday.
The family is also demanding that Israel hand over the body of a-Sharif, which is still in state custody after the autopsy conducted on Sunday. “Israel must face justice for the crimes it has been committing since the beginning of the uprising last October,” the family said in a statement, adding that it would demand a huge settlement for a-Sharif’s “murder.”
The unnamed soldier who shot at a-Sharif when he was neutralized and on the ground, is back in military court Tuesday, as the results of the autopsy conducted Sunday are reviewed. Palestinian Authority media said that the autopsy showed that the terrorist was alive when the soldier shot him in the head – indicating that he had been “executed” by the soldier. Formal charges have still not been filed against the soldier nearly two weeks after the incident, although the IDF prosecutor has decided not to charge the soldier with murder, as he had originally planned.
According to the report, the autopsy was conducted by Israeli pathologists at the Abu-Kabir forensic center in Tel Aviv, under the supervision of a Palestinian Authority pathologist. The PA pathologist signed off on the results of the autopsy, which lends credence to the position of the soldier that he shot at the terrorist because he was still alive and feared that he would recover sufficiently to attempt to stab another soldiers, or to set off a bomb he might have had on his person that the soldiers had not seen.
The furor surrounding the incident has been aggravated by numerous videos which have been distributed showing the events, some with and some without sound. In the video, a soldier is seen cocking his weapon and aiming it in the direction of one of the terrorists. Although the soldier is not seen in the footage because of a passing truck at the moment of the shooting, the terrorist is seen being hit by a bullet as blood flows from his head. The first terrorist was shot dead right away by other soldiers in a clear act of self-defense.
After the footage was released, a media furor broke out that night, and the soldier was arrested.
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