Israeli sniper blames British doctors for death of activist

The Times online
May 09, 2005

Israeli sniper blames British doctors for death of activist
From Yonit Farago and Stephen Farrell in Jerusalem



AN ISRAELI soldier on trial for killing Tom Hurndall, a British peace activist, has tried to deflect blame from himself by pointing to British doctors who treated Mr Hurndall.
A defence pathologist called by Sergeant Wahid Taysir told an Israeli military court yesterday that the 22-year-old from Tufnell Park, North London, died because he had received too much morphine as he lay in a coma after being flown home to London.



Sergeant Taysir, 20, a sniper with the Israel Defence Forces desert patrol (Beduin) battalion, shot Mr Hurndall in the head as the photojournalism student was shepherding Palestinian children to safety in Rafah, Gaza, in April 2003.

Sergeant Taysir, an award-winning marksman, denies six charges of manslaughter, obstructing justice and conduct unbecoming a soldier.

He admitted that he aimed a warning shot 4in (10cm) to the left of Mr Hurndall's ear because he had strayed too close to his pillbox, which was 60 yards away.

A military court in Kastina, near Kiryat Malachi, south of Ashdod, has been told that Mr Hurndall died from pneumonia in January 2004 after lying in a coma for nine months at the Royal Hospital for Neuro- disability, in Putney, southwest London. A British pathologist testified that he had died as a direct result of brain damage caused by the injury.

Yesterday Chen Kugel, an Israeli forensic pathologist, appearing for the defence, questioned the amount of morphine administered by British doctors. "Had he been given antibiotics from the beginning, from the very first day he was hospitalised, his lungs wouldn't have got to the stage they got to," Dr Kugel said. "In my evaluation, the critical cause (of) death was not the pneumonia, but, firstly, the large amount of morphine that he was getting."

Captain Hilla Gorni, for the prosecution, said that she would present expert evaluation that severe pneumonia was the direct cause of death.

A spokeswoman for the Putney hospital said last night: "We cannot comment on the unsubstantiated allegations because we have to deal within the confines of patient confidentiality. The inquest (will) not be completed until the trial is over."

Mr Hurndall's mother, Jocelyn, said last night that she was outraged that the defence would impugn the British medical team's use of morphine to dull her son's pain. "If one is listening to it rationally and legally, it makes no sense," she said.

"You can't break the causal link between the shooting and his death. There was very little left of Tom's brain and it's dumbfounding to anybody who has seen the CAT scan how he was still alive."