http://www.timesofisrael.com/new-video-exposes-severity-of-eritrean-mans-lynching/
New video exposes severity of Eritrean man’s ‘lynching’
Mobile phone footage shows vicious beating of Haftom Zarhum as crowd
chants ‘Am Yisrael Chai’
By Raoul Wootliff October 23, 2015, 2:47 am 0
Police and rescue workers at the scene of a shooting and stabbing
attack at the central bus station in the southern city of Beersheba,
on October 18, 2015. (Meir Even Haim/Flash90)
Writers
Raoul Wootliff is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Previously unseen footage of Sunday’s brutal beating of an Eritrean
man, mistaken by Israeli security forces for a terrorist during an
attack at the Beersheba bus station, aired Thursday on Channel 10.
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Haftom Zarhum, 29-year-old Eritrean, died in the hospital after he was
shot by security guard, who thought he had just taken part in a terror
attack. While writhing on the floor, he was repeatedly beaten by an
enraged mob.
Zarhum was shot during an attack on the Central Bus Station in which a
21-year-old Israeli Bedouin stabbed a soldier, then opened fire on a
crowd. Omri Levi, 19, was killed and 11 others injured in the attack.
Zarhum died later at the hospital; pathologists determined the cause
of death was internal bleeding from a gunshot wound, not the repeated
blows to the head he subsequently suffered.
The newly released footage of Zarhum’s beating shows a number of
people — including two soldiers — repeatedly kicking him in the head
as a bus driver tries to protect him.
Haftom Zarhum, 29, died of his wounds on October 19, 2015, a day after
he was shot and beaten by a mob that mistook him for an assailant in
the terror attack in Beersheba on October 18 in which IDF soldier Omri
Levy, 19, was killed. (Courtesy)
At one point one an off-duty soldier runs up to Zarhum and kicks him
in the face as he flails in a pool of his own blood. The soldier can
then be seen repeatedly stomping on Zarhum’s head. The soldier only
stops when a security guard pushes him away.
Some in the crowd can be heard shouting “kill him, kill him” and “die
already, son of a bitch.” Toward the end of the clip some start
chanting “Am Yisrael Chai,” Hebrew for “The people of Israel live.”
The graphic video was posted on the Channel 10 website.
Four suspects in the beating, including two members of the Israel
Prison Service, were arrested by police Wednesday for aggravated
assault.
The four were released on bail Thursday and have been banned from
making contact with one another.
The head of the Israel Prison Service condemned the alleged actions of
its employees, saying that “violence contradicts the values of the
organization.”
The IDF said Monday that the military police was taking part in the
investigation of the incident.
Some 2,000 people attended a memorial event for Zarhum in Tel Aviv on Wednesday.
Received on Thu Oct 22 2015 - 22:28:29 EDT