The IDF's Military Advocate General has rejected the demand to increase the charges against the former commander of the 71st battalion, Lt. Col. Omri Burberg, who was filmed in June holding a bound and blindfolded Palestinian prisoner and ordering one of his soldiers to fire a rubber bullet at the prisoner's leg.
Burberg and the soldier, Staff Sgt. L., were charged with unbecoming behavior after a military-police investigation into the affair. In response to the relatively light charges, four civil-rights organizations petitioned the High Court of Justice, requesting that the court order the Military Advocate General to change the charge to something more serious.
Joining the four organizations - B'Tselem, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Yesh Din and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel - was the Palestinian shot by the soldier, 27-year-old Ashraf Abu Rahmeh of Na'alin.
The military advocate general, Brig. Gen Avihai Mandelblit, submitted a statement to the court stating that the decision to charge the soldier and officer "was reasonable given the circumstances and therefore should not be changed." The affidavit did note the gaps in the versions the two men gave to the military police during the investigation.
The army also claimed in its statement to the court that the matter was not within the High Court's purview, and therefore the petition should be dismissed.
No date has yet been set to hear the case.
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