JERUSALEM, Nov 22 (AFP) - An Israeli military court on Monday indicted an army officer accused by his own soldiers of emptying his weapon into a Palestinian schoolgirl who was already dead, judicial sources said.
The officer was charged with two counts of illegal use of a weapon, two counts of inappropriate behaviour and exceeding his authority and one count of obstruction of justice.
The indictments followed a military police investigation into an incident on October 5 in which 13-year-old Iman al-Hams was shot dead by soldiers in the southern Gaza town of Rafah on suspicion she was carrying explosives in her school satchel.
A fellow soldier testified that the commander, whose name has not been revealed, then fired into the girl's body several times. The doctor who examined the body told AFP it was riddled with 20 bullets, including five in the head.
The charges were levelled just five weeks after soldier was cleared of any wrongdoing in another army investigation.
According to the indictment, after the girl was injured in the initial burst of fire from the outpost, the officer and another soldier approached the girl as she was lying on the ground.
Telling the other soldier to wait at a distance, the officer went on ahead and on reaching the girl "pointed his weapon, an M16, down and shot her -- two shots at very close range".
He was about to return to the other soldier but changed his mind, the indictment said.
"He turned around and returned to the place where the girl was lying... and standing as before, he aimed his weapon down and fired, in automatic mode, about 10 bullets until he emptied his magazine."
The indictment also charged the officer with trying to convince other soldiers to lie on his behalf.
Last month, the army concluded an internal investigation that cleared the officer.
"The investigation did not find that the company or the company commander had acted unethically during the incident," the army said on October 15
The officer, who denies all the charges, was arrested shortly afterwards by the military police after they discovered contradictions in his testimony, public radio said.
It said tapes of the radio communications on the day of the incident are to be played at the trial.
Army chief of staff Moshe Yaalon said soldiers had justified firing at the girl because they suspected she wanted to distract their attention and lead them away from their watch tower so Palestinian snipers could shoot them.
11/22/2004 15:07 GMT - AFP