Israel absolves policeman who killed Palestinian boy

By Alaa al-Rimawi

JERUSALEM (AA) – The Israeli authorities have dropped all charges against an Israeli police officer who had been charged with killing 16-year-old Palestinian Mohamed Sunuqrut in Jerusalem in mid-2014.

According to Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, the case against the police officer was dropped due to a "lack of evidence".

The newspaper reported that the division of the Justice Ministry mandated with investigating alleged police abuses had sent a letter to Sunuqrut’s family asserting that investigations had shown that the police officer had targeted the lower part of Sunuqrut's body but had ended up "accidentally" shooting him in the head.

Fouad al-Khufash, director of the Ahrar Center for Prisoners' Studies and Human Rights, an NGO, told Anadolu Agency that Sunuqrut was only one of dozens of Palestinian youths wrongfully killed by Israeli police.

"They kill, then they launch an ‘investigation’ that ultimately absolves the murderers," al-Khufash said.