A military court this week cleared an Israeli army officer of most of the charges against him over his suspected ties to a Jewish underground that was allegedly planning attacks against Arabs.
Lt. Oren Edri was found not guilty Tuesday of passing information and of giving military training and weapons to a group of right-wing activists based in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba.
Edri was also cleared of the charge of displaying conduct unbecoming an officer and was not demoted in rank.
But he was convicted of taking weapons from an army base and of giving another suspected underground member, Ya’acov Ben David, technical information on making explosive devices.
Edri was sentenced to seven months in jail, but was released Tuesday night after having already spent five months in prison on detention-the equivalent of already serving the sentence, with one-third of the time taken off for good behavior.
The judges rejected Edri’s claim that Israeli interrogators had placed unbearable pressure on him during questioning. But they said that some of the interrogation methods, such as humiliation, were irregular.
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