Ex-Israeli soldier guilty of killing British student

A former Israeli soldier was found guilty by a military court in Israel yesterday of shooting dead the British student Tom Hurndall while he acted as a "human shield" in the Gaza Strip.

Mr Hurndall's father, Anthony Hurndall, welcomed the outcome of the family's long-running quest for justice but said he was disappointed that the judges had not probed higher up the chain of command.

Mr Hurndall, 22, a photography student, was shot in the head with a single bullet as he attempted to rescue a child from gunfire in April 2003.

Yesterday the three judges convicted Sergeant Wahid Taysir on all counts: manslaughter, obstructing justice, submitting and obtaining false testimony and unbecoming behaviour.

Mr Hurndall, a London lawyer, told The Independent before flying home last night: "This seems to be one incident in a pattern, a system and a policy of very indiscriminate shooting and very little accountability. So the fact that one soldier has been prosecuted is not really satisfactory because the only reason he was charged was that a British family put a lot of time into preparing a case and had tremendous support from the Foreign Office. We don't feel that the underlying policy has been addressed."

Taysir will be sentenced in August. The maximum penalty for manslaughter is 20 years.

Captain Hilla Gorni, the prosecuting officer, said: "We are going to ask for a very serious sentence due to the seriousness of the offence. This verdict shows very clearly that the army will not tolerate such acts. We will prosecute any case where this has been done."

Two other British civilians - James Miller, a cameraman, and Iain Hook, an aid worker - were shot dead by Israeli soldiers during the four-year Palestinian intifada. No one has been charged.

Tom Hurndall, an activist in the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement, died in a London hospital nine months after being shot without regaining consciousness.

The court found that Taysir shot him with a sniper rifle using a telescopic sight in clear knowledge of the consequences and in breach of the rules of engagement.

It rejected defence claims that "malpractice" by British doctors caused his death. The judges mentioned a confession in which Taysir said he wanted to teach Hurndall a lesson for entering a forbidden area.

He admitted aiming a bullet four inches to the left of his head to frighten him, but said he didn't intend to hit him.

"From that moment," said Colonel Nir Aviram, the presiding judge, "Sergeant Taysir began a broad campaign of lies and falsehoods to throw off the expected investigation and to remove any criminal guilt from himself."

Taysir, a Bedouin who volunteered for the army, accused his commanders of racism. He sat silently in black t-shirt and jeans throughout the hour-long reading of the judgment.

His lawyer, Ilan Bombach, said afterwards: "We believe there are serious grounds for appeal."

Taleb al Sana, a Bedouin member of the Israeli parliament, accused the army of choosing an easy target to divert attention from its own wrongdoings.

"It is easier to throw garbage on someone who is different."

The Interior Ministry stopped Tom Hurndall's brother, William, from entering the country to attend yesterday's hearing. He had arrived with his father, but rejected Israeli conditions that he stay for no more than 24 hours, did not enter the West Bank or Gaza, and be accompanied by a representative of the British embassy.

Mark Regev, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said they wanted assurances that William Hurndall, also an ISM activist, wouldn't become involved in demonstrations. "We had no problem," he said, "letting family members attend the trial. But we didn't want any street theatre of the kind the ISM is so good at."

- INDEPENDENT