HAFTOM ZARHUM
Two Israeli security officers were acquitted in a case involving the lynching of Haftom Zarhum, an Eritrean refugee, although they were filmed beating him and repeatedly dropping a bench on his head. The judge cited "reasonable doubt".
The bloodthirsty mob lynching in October 2015 was part of a string of "mistaken identity" incidents in Israel. A terror attack had in fact taken place earlier at the Beersheba central bus station; a man from an unrecognized Bedouin village in the Negev opened fire, killing a soldier and wounding 11 others.
Zarhum was a passerby, who was mistaken for the shooter by a security guard because he was dark skinned. A police spokesman in the wake of the incident said that it was "not clear if [Zarhum] is involved with the event or if he was shot due to his exterior appearance."
Zarhum was shot 8 times. Though he had been incapacitated, the mob continued to beat him heavily, shouting "terrorist!", "Kill him!", "break his head, son of a bitch!". The two officers were in that mob. The Times of Israel notes:
"The indictment said that in the aftermath of the attack, [combat soldier Yaakov] Shimba kicked Zarhum in the head and upper body with force. It said [Prison Services officer Ronen] Cohen threw a bench onto him, and after another man removed the bench he took it and again dropped it on the prone man."The indictment states that although Zarhum was one of the most seriously wounded in the fracas, he was evacuated to hospital only after all other wounded were evacuated (per Haaretz).
Comment: That's Israeli logic for you. "Judge, I thought I was killing a Palestinian." "Why didn't you say so? You're free to go, valiant sir!" Barbarians.