British immigrant found guilty in June shooting of Gush Katif Arab

39-year-old Kfar Tapuah resident faces a prison sentence unless he can win an appeal.

By YIGAL GRAYEFF
court gavel 88 (photo credit: )
court gavel 88
(photo credit: )
British immigrant Daniel Pinner was found guilty on Sunday of shooting an Arab in the leg on a beach in Gush Katif in June. The 39-year-old electrician, who lives in Kfar Tapuah, will be sentenced in March and faces "a few years in jail" unless he can win an appeal, said defense lawyer Baruch Ben-Yoses. Pinner is also guilty of carrying a weapon without a valid license, with Beersheba District Court Judge Rahel Barkai saying the authorizations he held were restricted to his settlement. The sentencing has been delayed in order for the court to receive a probation report, which Ben Yoses hopes will encourage Barkai to pass a light sentence. Once this has been received, Pinner will launch his appeal. Ben Yoses said Pinner looked "very down" after he heard the verdict, which he described as "outrageous." "She ignored most of our claims," he said. "Despite all the discrepancies in the Arab testimony and the discrepancies in their description of Daniel she believed the Arabs. She was just interested in finding him guilty - she didn't really care what the facts were." In a 22-page verdict, Barkai acknowledged the inconsistencies in the testimonies of the Arab witnesses, but said the evidence of the injured man, Khan Yunis resident Nasser Wafi, was still credible. "It was a short and traumatic experience in which there were a lot of participants, and so it is natural that things will be described slightly differently by all the witnesses," she said. Pinner was found guilty of wounding Wafi during clashes between Palestinians and Jewish occupants of the nearby Maoz Hayam hotel, where he was staying for Shabbat two months before disengagement. Pinner denied the charges, saying he was walking on the beach when he was attacked by 50 stone-throwing Arabs. Believing his life was in danger, he fired his gun in the air only, after which both sides withdrew.