The Ramla Magistrates' Court was handed an indictment against a former Border Guard officer Tuesday, accusing him of causing death of an 11-year old boy during an anti-fence protest in Naalin in 2008.
The indictment charges the officer, Omri Abu, with causing death by negligence. It says he shot live fire in the direction of the boy, Ahmed Moussa, and a group of protestors without justification and in total violation of IDF guidelines.
The prosecution claims Abu did not bother to make sure there was no one present in the direction at which he was aiming and accuses him of failing to take proper steps to insure the lives of civilians, as is expected of troops.
Immediately after Moussa's death the B'tselem and Yesh Din organizations demanded the police launch an investigation, and claimed the Ramallah hospital which performed an autopsy on Moussa's body had determined that he was killed by a live bullet.
The IDF and Border Guard held a joint investigation following the claims, and concluded that the boy had indeed been killed by security forces on the scene.
Abu claimed during his interrogation that he had fired two shots into the air in order to deter the protestors. He claims he and his fellow soldiers had come under attack by residents who threw stones at the jeep in which they were traveling.
Yesh Din's research director, Lior Yavne, claimed that "in recent years, the circumstances of innocent Palestinian civilian's deaths have been brought before the court only rarely".
He expressed hope that the defendant's conviction would "give the prosecution and courts a chance to clarify that those responsible for using lethal force against unarmed civilians will not be cleared".
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