The Israel Defense Force’s chief infantry and paratroop officer, Brig. Gen. Yitzhak Mordechai, was yesterday acquitted of charges of improper conduct and excessive violence in the interrogation of two terrorists captured during the freeing of a bus they had hijacked and whose passengers they held hostage over a year ago.
A one-man disciplinary inquiry commission reported that it accepted Mordechai’s explanations that it had been urgently necessary to take exceptional measures to obtain “real time” information to ascertain the whereabouts of a reported explosive charge left aboard the bus when they were removed.
Two of the four terrorists who took over the bus were killed when it was stormed by a crack Army unit commanded by Mordechai near Ashdod, on its way toward the Egyptian border. The other two were seen being led away from the bus, to a nearby investigation center set up in a tent.
Mordechai had admitted that he had pistol-whipped the two terrorists. But two earlier investigation commissions — one civilian and one military — had found that they had actually died as a result of blows on their skulls from rifle butts during the storming of the bus, to stun them and prevent their further shooting.
The earlier commissions reports had been submitted to the Attorney General. They said that Mordechai could not be held responsible for the actual deaths of the two, but suggested that further investigations should be held into suspicions of his improper conduct and the use of excessive force.
FINDINGS SHOW USE OF ‘REASONABLE FORCE’
The Attorney General, Yitzhak Zamir, handed the reports over to the IDF’s Judge Advocate-General but denied reports that he suggested Mordechai should be put on trial. IDF reserve Maj. Gen. Chaim Nadel was subsequently appointed as a one-man disciplinary board and investigated the evidence. He questioned Mordechai last Friday. His report was published by the IDF spokesman yesterday.
According to his findings, Mordechai had used “reasonable force” to obtain “vital and immediate information” and to prevent danger to other people. He was acting during the first few minutes of the terrorists interrogation after their capture, trying to discover what had happened to a grenade and booby-trapped suitcase which had been in their possession on the bus, the inquiry found.
A grass-roots movement for Mordechai’s release of any suspicions had grown in recent days. Even politicians who have protested against excessive violence welcomed the acquittal verdict, saying that the year-long inquiry had publicized many “mysteries” and these had finally been disproved by the disciplinary court. Mordechai had been in line for promotion for some time, but this had been postponed until the end of the investigations. His promotion to the rank of Maj. Gen. is now expected within days, and Mordechai will be in line for promotion to a senior IDF post.
The Army and the police must now decide how to act with reference to the other soldiers and policemen involved in the incident, against whom the earlier commissions had proposed disciplinary action.
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