Israel’s Ambassador to Egypt Moshe Sasson, has voiced his “confidence in Egyptian justice” following the handing down yesterday of a life imprisonment sentence on the Ras Burka killer, Suleiman Khater.
Sasson, in media interviews, noted, too, with gratification that in recent days the major Egyptian media had conveyed to the public in Egypt the full facts of the killing on October 5 of seven Israeli holiday vacationers by Khater, by a soldier stationed near Ras Burka on the Sinai coast.
Sasson’s comments were excoriated, however, by a bereaved parent, Reuven Baum, whose 10-year-old son, Amir, bled to death after being hit by a bullet from Khater’s gun. Baum today accused the Ambassador of “dereliction of duty” because of Sasson’s public acceptance of the Egyptian court’s sentence as a satisfactory expression of justice.
Baum said that since Egyptian law provided for a heavier sentence, the life imprisonment punishment could not be said — as Sasson had said — to have fully expressed justice. Baum’s dissatisfaction over the sentence was echoed by other bereaved parents, too.
The demand that other Egyptian personnel now be examined regarding their behavior was voiced by Doveish Knesset member Yossi Sarid, in a cable to the Egyptian government last night. Sarid, of the Citizens Rights Movement, called for a commission of inquiry to study the denial of prompt medical aid to the victims.
There will be no Daily News Bulletin dated January 1, New Year’s Day, a postal holiday.
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