Who's The Criminal?
Sentencing phase begins for 2 convicted Givati soldiers
By JPOST.COM STAFF
25/10/2010
Troops convicted of "overstepping authority" for having Gazan boy open suspicious bags during Cast Lead claim they're Goldstone's victims.
The preliminary hearings before sentencing for the two Givati Brigade soldiers convicted of exceeding authority during Operation Cast Lead began at the military court in Kastina in the South on Monday.
The two soldiers were convicted by court martial three weeks ago for ordering a nine-year-old Palestinian boy to open bags they suspected might be booby-trapped found near his Gaza home.
Military prosecutors requested that the court imprison the soldiers and demote them to the ranks of privates for violation of human rights and the IDF's code of "purity of arms."
"They are treating me like a war criminal, that I need to pay dearly for years to come," said one of the accused at the court.
The other accused soldier told the court, "We feel as thought we are victims of the Goldstone Report."
The charges carry a maximum penalty of three years in prison.
My heart and prayers go out to these two soldiers.
But with the current climate of persecution of combat soldiers that exist in the prosecutors office of the IDF, it does not look good for these soldiers.
The biggest criminals in this story is without a doubt the prosecutors office of the IDF.
I would like to see all the prosecutors demoted to the rank of private and given ten to twenty for the crime of destroying our soldiers ability to fight without having to second guess everything they do.
Of course we can't let our soldiers rape and murder but historically our soldiers don't engage in such actions. But sorry I have no problem wih what these soldiers did in Gaza.
