Machine guns stolen
צילום: צפריר אביוב
2 convicted of stealing IDF machine guns
Haifa court finds 2 Arabeh residents, 29 and 17, guilty of stealing machine guns from Golani brigade memorial site
Two residents of Arabeh in the western Galilee were convicted Sunday morning at the Haifa District Court of stealing machine guns from the memorial site for Golani brigade soldiers and attempting to use them.
The indictment noted that the suspects asked a soldier, also a resident of Arabeh, to obtain parts for them to make the weapons usable, but he refused to cooperate. The indictment did not note whether they had criminal or terrorist intentions.
The indictment, filed by lawyer Anat Steinscneid from the Haifa District attorney’s office, said that the two – Said Namarna, 29 and a 17-year-old youth – made the plans necessary to steal the guns in February of this year. They broke into the memorial site and stole two MAG machine guns from an armored personnel carrier there.
The MAG is one of the half-weighted weapons common in the IDF. Its bullet diameter is 7.62 mm and can only be fired in bursts. It has no magazine and uses a chain of bullets. The weapons the two stole were missing vital parts and were partially soldered, but the suspects apparently believed they were usable, according to the indictment.
It goes on to detail how the two brought the machine guns to Namarnaj’s home and obtianed equipment to slice through the welded parts. The adolescent, the indictment said, instructed Namarna on how the weapons could be fixed so they would be usable. Namarna approached a soldier from their neighborhood and asked him to get him the missing MAG parts, but the soldier refused.
Namarna hid the guns for close to a month in an olive grove near his village. In addition, the indictment said that despite their failure, the 17-year-old youth broke into the site a second time and stole another MAG.
The two were caught by Misgav police after memorial site employees complained to the police, who launched an investigation into the matter. At first the soldier involved was also detained, but he was released when it became clear that he did not supply the requested parts.
The accused, represented by lawyer Amit Rosens and Lilach Gefen from Acre, were found guilty of property offences and illegal weapons possessions.
