Inquest into the death of Tom Hurndall opens tomorrow in London.

international | anti-war / imperialism | other press Sunday April 09, 2006 18:24 by Ben Murphy - Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Last Thursday's inquest jury returned a verdict of murder on the IDF killing of cameraman, James Miller.

Tomorrow, the high-profile inquest into the death of Tom Hurndall, the 22 year old British student shot in the head as he shepherded Palestinian children to safety, opens.
Beneath the gaze of the world's media, his mother , Jocelyn, will tell coroner Andrew Reid, at St Pancras Coroners' Court, London, how the Israeli authorities tampered with evidence, suppressed investigations and attempted to cover up the shooting.

It was the perseverance of Tom's father, Anthony, that finally led to the tracking down of 13 witnesses who contradicted the IDF's official report into how his son was shot. His own report destroyed the validity of IDF claims that Tom was firing a gun at Israelis, or wearing combat fatigues. Images taken moments after the shooting, when blood was still spurting from his brain, also revealed that Tom had been shot hundreds of yards from where the Israeli army had alleged. Such findings will be corroborated this week by testimony from ballistics experts, Met officers and pathologists' reports.

Last Thursday, at the same Coroners Court, an inquest jury returned a verdict of murder on the shooting dead of another British national, James Miller, in the same Gaza Strip refugee camp, Rafah, by the Israeli Army a month after Tom's shooting. However, what did not emerge during Miller's inquest was how the Israeli authorities offered £200,000 'blood money' to Miller's widow, Sophy, to settle her case for compensation in the weeks running up to the inquest. Sophy received the offer in January and was encouraged by the British embassy in Israel to accept the deal. The Miller family rejected the offer as an insult, having already invested more in a quest to bring those responsible to justice.

The full lengthy report by Mark Townsend can be read on the Guardian/Observer website.