Jerusalem: An Israeli soldier jailed for
killing a British activist in the Gaza Strip will be released
after serving six-and-a-half years of an eight-year sentence,
media reported on Monday.
Sergeant Taysir Wahid was convicted of manslaughter for
killing Briton Tom Hurndall, an activist with the
pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement.
A military court ordered Wahid freed next month,
accepting his lawyers claim that he deserved to have his
sentence reduced for good behaviour, the Ynet news website
reported.
The army had no immediate comment.
The prosecution had argued that releasing the soldier
early would harm Israel's diplomatic ties with Britain, Ynet
said.
Hurndall, then 22, was shot in the head in the Rafah
refugee camp in April 2003. He died in January 2004 in a
London hospital after spending nine months in a persistent
vegetative state.
PTI
First Published: Monday, July 19, 2010, 21:56