Lt. malul. Found guilty
Photo: Ofer Amram
A military court has convicted Lieutenant Adam Malul, a former deputy company commander in the Kfir Brigade, of aggravated assault.
Kfir Commander
Hanan Greenberg
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Malul was charged with assaulting a number of Palestinian detainees along with Staff Sergeant A of the Shimshon Battalion. His sentence will be determined at a later stage.
Judges who deliberated Malul's case stressed that he had crossed a red line and that his actions were unacceptable. The lieutenant said he was disappointed with the verdict, and that the court had failed to provide an alternative course of action for soldiers to rely on, on occasions in which proper conduct is unclear.
The prosecution claimed that the incident occurred in September of 2008, when a group of soldiers under Malul's command detained a group of Palestinians while patrolling the West Bank.
One of the soldiers butted a Palestinian with his helmet and kneed him in the stomach as the commander looked on, the prosecutor told the court. The same soldier also beat and pushed two other Palestinians who tried to stop him.
The prosecution told the court that the commander then ordered a bodily search of dozens of Palestinians, and during interrogation hit one of them in the head while the soldier kicked him. The two were said to have acted aggressively towards all of the detainees.
GOC Central Command Gadi Shamni said three months ago at the trial that clear guidelines had been established for soldiers serving in the West Bank, and that "it is prohibited to beat Palestinians during interrogation".
Malul later criticized the commander, saying that he was out of touch with actual occurrences in the field.
"There are people who get their hands dirty every day in order to defend the state's security. I am willing to do that, but I expect to be supported and not to be thrown to the wolves," he said.