Controversy Erupts Anew over Reduced Sentence of Officer

The simmering controversy over the reduced sentence granted a former Israeli paratroop officer convicted of murdering four civilians in a Lebanese village last year has erupted anew in the Knesset and was taken up by the government today.

The Cabinet, meeting in closed session as a ministerial security committee, discussed the case of former Lt. Daniel Pinto who was reduced in rank to private and is confined to a military prison. No details of the discussion were divulged but the heads of various Knesset factions are demanding a thorough investigation. It is expected that the Pinto affair will be discussed tomorrow by the Knesset Security and Foreign Affairs Committee. The committee is scheduled to meet with Chief of Staff Gen. Raphael Eitan on a routine basis Tuesday.

The case itself was shrouded in secrecy owing to military censorship until this weekend when foreign newspapers published a version of the events that led to Pinto’s conviction. The reports apparently were based on information gathered by MK Uri Avneri of the Sheli faction who has accused Eitan of lying in order to justify his reduction of Pinto’s sentence from eight to two years.

According to Avneri, Eitan was fully aware of the extent of Pinto’s crime when he ordered the reduction on grounds that the soldier had acted in self defense. That claim was rejected by the courts. Nevertheless, Pinto’s original 12-year sentence imposed by a military tribunal, was subsequently shortened to eight years by an appeals court headed by Judge Meir Shamgar.

Avneri made his disclosures to the Knesset last July but his report was deleted from the Knesset record because of the sensitive nature of the subject. Shortly afterwards, Eitan said he accepted Pinto’s claim that his own life had been imperiled where he entered Ein Baal village in south Lebanon in March, 1978 and that he was forced to make a swift decision, albeit a wrong one Later, Eitan said he accepted the court’s guilty verdict in the case but considered that the circum stances warranted a further reduction of the sentence.

CLAIMS SELF-DEFENSE

The version accepted by the courts and published abroad in the past few days stated that Pinto captured four Lebanese villagers in Ein Baal, tortured them under interrogation and then personally Killed them and had their bodies thrown into a well Pinto alleged that he shot the villagers in self-defense and later found documents in their pockets indicating that they were members of the Syrianbacked Al Saiqa terrorist group. Only two of the bodies were recovered, neither showing signs of having been shat. According to the evidence accepted by the court they were strangled with a nylon cord.

Pinto, 24, is the son of a Moroccan father and an Algerian mother. He was trained as a paratrooper, along with three of his brothers, and proved an outstanding student, later passing through officers candidate school. At the time of Israel’s invasion of south Lebanon he commanded an infantry platoon in a company that entered Ein Baal. The villagers flew white flags but a sniper killed Pinto’s commanding officer. He was placed in temporary command and proceeded to interrogate the villagers.

Pinto has been assigned to clerical duties in the military prison. He is expected to be released in two or three months for good behavior. But the storm in the Knesset is only beginning. Avneri said today that the foreign press reports will vindicate his efforts to bring the entire matter before the Israeli public and thereby prevent a recurrence. But some MKs are accusing Avneri of violating security.