Slain UK reporter’s kin await inquiry

The family of a British journalist who was killed in the Palestinian territories almost two years ago met the Israeli ambassador in London after calling for the soldier who shot him to be prosecuted.

James Miller was killed in the Gaza Strip in 2003

The parents of James Miller, a 35-year-old award-winning television journalist who was killed in May 2003 while filming a documentary in the Gaza Strip, said on Tuesday they met with Ambassador Zvi Heifetz.

Eileen and Geoffrey Miller later said Heifetz had promised that conclusions of an Israeli inquiry would be announced on Wednesday, when other family members are due to meet the Israeli military’s advocate-general in Tel Aviv.

“The ambassador believes they are going to be told something. He indicated that there would be some kind of disclosure tomorrow,” Eileen Miller said in London.

She said the meeting between General Avihai Mandelblitt, the attorney-general for Israel’s military, and Miller’s widow Sophy and his siblings was the first Mandelblitt had granted in 22 months.

No charges

Eileen said earlier that “all the evidence shows that the shot that killed our son was a deliberate shot and despite the fact that the armoured personnel carrier from which that shot came was identified 18 months ago, we are dismayed and distressed that no charges have been brought against the soldier or soldiers involved.”

The Israeli military police previously led an investigation into Miller’s death but no criminal charges were brought.

Miller’s crew maintains they were carrying a white flag and identified themselves as British media to Israeli occupation soldiers as they left a Palestinian home in Rafah, but were fired upon by a soldier, whose bullet struck Miller in the neck, between his helmet and bullet-proof vest.

The Israeli army has also expressed regret over the incident but insists that the Briton had “taken great risks by being in a virtual war zone”.

Source: AFP