Prosecutors charged four Israelis Tuesday for brutally beating an Eritrean migrant worker as he lay bleeding from gunshot wounds after being mistaken for an Arab militant attacker last year, media said.

Habtom Zarhum, 29, was shot by a security guard at a bus station in the southern city of Beersheba in October when he was wrongly identified as the assailant in an attack that killed an Israeli soldier.

Members of the Eritrean community in Israel mourn on October 21, 2015 in Tel Aviv during a memorial ceremony for Eritrean asylum seeker Habtom ZarhumFootage of him bleeding as an angry mob rained blows on his head and body spread on social media, prompting soul searching among Israelis over their response to a wave of attacks as well as their treatment of African migrants.

Israeli public radio said one of those charged with "deliberately causing serious bodily harm" was a prison officer and another a soldier.

The prison officer was not named in the reports but his lawyer, Tzion Amir, told army radio that his client believed he and others at the bus station were in a potentially life-threatening situation.

"There was still danger at that time. The suspect was still moving and may have had a pistol or an explosives belt," he said.

 

yourmiddleeast.com