Givati 'human shield' soldiers sentenced to probation

Court does not give jail time to pair convicted of ordering Palestinian boy to open suspected booby-trapped bags during Operation Cast Lead.

By YAAKOV KATZ
Soldiers in Court 311 (photo credit: Channel 10)
Soldiers in Court 311
(photo credit: Channel 10)
Two Givati soldiers convicted of using a Palestinian boy as a human shield during Operation Cast Lead were sentenced to probation and had their ranks demoted Sunday by a military court.
The court decided against the military prosecutions recommendations, choosing not to sentence the Givati Reconnaisance Brigade soldiers to active jail time and instead giving them three months probation and demoting them from the rank of staff seargent to the rank of seargent.
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The soldiers, who cannot be identified, were found guilty last month of exceeding their authority by ordering a nine-year-old boy to open bags they suspected might be booby-trapped near his home in Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa neighborhood.
Military prosecutors requested that the court imprison the soldiers and demote them to privates for violating human rights and the IDF’s code of “purity of arms.”
The defendants, identified only as “St.-Sgt. A.” and “St.-Sgt H.,” have completed their mandatory military service. The charges carried a maximum penalty of three years in prison.
The two sergeants came under investigation before the UN’s Goldstone Report was released in September 2009. The IDF probe was opened based on information in a report compiled by a special UN representative appointed to investigate matters involving children and armed conflict, and following a specific complaint filed by the Israeli branch of Defense for Children International.