Posted on 09/14/22
| News Source: i24
The defendant looked through the scope of the rifle and pulled the trigger'
An Israeli soldier on Wednesday was sentenced to 26 months in prison and fined $3,500 for accidentally killing a fellow soldier last year.
Staff Sergeant M. of the Nahal Brigade mistakenly shot 23-year-old Staff Sergeant Yonatan Granot on February 23, 2021, at a base in the Jordan Valley.
M. was demoted to the rank of private and ordered to pay Granot's family $3,500 on top of his 26-month prison time.
The findings of the investigation showed that the direct cause of the accident was that Private M. was in possession of a weapon that he was not authorized to use.
Granot was struck in the head and critically injured by a .22-caliber round from a Ruger rifle, military prosecutors said, before dying three days later. This type of ammunition is typically used for riot dispersal and is described as a "less lethal" ammunition by the Israeli military.