The Israeli Beersheba district court in southern Israel issued light sentences on members of the Israeli border guards who were convicted of robbing and torturing Palestinian workers in circumstances where the workers did not pose any threat to the guards.
The light sentences, which are incommensurate with the gravity of the offense, were issued after striking a deal with the Department of Internal Police Investigations (Machash) and the accused. The court previously proposed imposing a sentence of eight years on the border guards, however, after the deal, a very reduced sentence was imposed on each one of them.
A few years ago, Israeli border guards came across Palestinian workers in a forest in southern Israel and severally attacked them while documenting the attack with their phones.
Testimony from the workers who had testified before the Israeli court revealed that the border guards forced the workers to lie on the ground and harshly beat them up even though they did not face any danger or threat to their lives.
One of the border guards reportedly videotaped himself beating one of the workers with a stick and singing, while workers appeared in the video flat on the ground with their faces bleeding.
Source: Palestine News and Information Agency