The Israeli Supreme Court overturned on Sunday a lower court decision, and convicted Nahum Korman of manslaughter in the death of the 11-year-old Palestinian boy, Hilmi Shousha, according to The Jerusalem Post newspaper
According to the paper, the charge of manslaughter carries a maximum prison term of 20 years.
Shousha died on October 27, 1996 in the village of Husan in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, said the paper.
The paper said that prior to his death, Palestinian youths had stoned Israeli vehicles on a bypass road below the village.
Korman, the security officer of the Jewish settlement of Betar Illit, drove to Husan while he was armed with a pistol, and headed by foot towards houses at the edge of the village.
From this point, the paper said, versions of events differ.
Ibrahim and Tahrir Shousha, cousins of the victim, testified that they saw Korman kick Hilmi in the thigh and temple, stomp on his neck and strike him with his pistol.
But Korman testified that the victim had run towards him, and suddenly collapsed and fell. He said he did not touch Hilmi until after he had collapsed and then only to try and revive him, the paper said.
According to preliminary autopsy, doctors ruled out the possibility that Hilmi had died of a genetic defect exacerbated by stress, and concluded that he had died of a blow.
The supreme court ruled that the original autopsy and additional evidence related to the case proved that Hilmi had died of a tear in the spinal artery which was caused by a blow, and that the blow had been administered by Korman.
But pathologists, hired by the defense, claimed that Hilmi had fallen backwards, struck his head on a hard or sharp object and twisted his neck, thus causing the tear that killed him.
In August 1999, the Jerusalem District Court had cleared Korman of the charge on the grounds that the two key witnesses who testified against him gave unreliable testimony, and that the final autopsy had been influenced by the cousins' testimony.
Korman, who was sitting at the back of the courtroom, did not flinch when the decision was announced, said the paper, adding that he refused to talk to journalists outside the court room - Albawaba.com
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
