Israeli soldier seen gripping Abu Ein 'did nothing wrong'

The Israeli soldier photographed tightly gripping the now dead Minister Ziad Abu Ein by the neck, said "his senior officer told him he did nothing wrong; he did not do anything that would warrant accountability", local media sources quoted him saying.

The sources noted that "the soldier went home after being questioned for a few minutes by his direct senior officer."

The questioning only took a few minutes during which the soldier said: "The area where the incident occurred was experiencing an event during which Palestinians and foreign activists were planting olive trees, but we blocked the road to prevent them from doing this."

The soldier, a member of the border police, also claimed that one of the minister's companions tried to hit soldiers with a stick and so their reaction was moderate.

Israeli medics accuse the soldier of killing Abu Ein. One Israeli medical source, who examined details of Abu Ein's autopsy, told Israel's Channel 10 that the cause of his death was a heart attack that may have been caused by the tight grip on his neck, which led to low oxygen levels and bleeding in his coronary artery. more

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