A military court on Monday convicted a former Israeli soldier of manslaughter in the shooting death of a young pro-Palestinian British activist, the first time a soldier has been found guilty of killing a foreign citizen during more than four years of Palestinian-Israeli violence.
The defendant, Wahid Taysir, was accused of shooting Tom Hurndall in the head during an army operation in the Gaza Strip in April 2003. Witnesses said Hurndall, 22, a member of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM), was helping Palestinian children avoid Israeli tanks.
Hurndall lay in a comatose state for nine months before he died in a London hospital.
In its ruling, the three-judge panel said Taysir shot Hurndall with a sniper rifle using a telescopic sight, and said Taysir had given a "confused and even pathetic" version of events.
The court referred to a confession by Taysir, in which he said he wanted to teach Hurndall a lesson for entering a forbidden area. Taysir admitted to aiming a bullet 10cm to the left of Hurndall's head to frighten him, but inadvertently struck the activist.
"From that moment, Sergeant Taysir began a broad campaign of lies and falsehoods to throw off the expected investigation and to remove any criminal guilt from himself," wrote Colonel Nir Aviram, the panel's head judge.
Taysir also was convicted of obstruction of justice, submitting false testimony, obtaining false testimony and unbecoming behavior. Taysir, who is to be sentenced in mid-August, faces up to 20 years in prison.
Hurndall's sister, Sophie Hurndall, praised the verdict, but said the army must change its practices.
"This kind of thing needs to stop happening. Until that has changed ... we won't really have won," she told Sky News TV.
Their father, Anthony Hurndall, said the verdict "amounts to a limited justice."
The defense argued that Taysir's confession was forced. Taysir also said he was prosecuted because he is an Arab and because his victim was a foreigner.
Hurndall, a student, was shot in the Rafah refugee camp, a frequent flashpoint.
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