JERUSALEM, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Israel's police said Thursday that it had decided to fire an officer who was caught on video beating a Palestinian truck driver in Jerusalem, about a month after the incident.
A video footage that surfaced on the internet on March 22, showed a Special Patrol Unit police officer verbally and physically abusing Mazin Shweiki, a resident of Sur Baher, a Palestinian neighborhood in southeastern Jerusalem.
The incident, which took place near an Internal Affairs Ministry bureau in the Palestinian neighborhood of Wadi Joz, stirred anger and calls by Arab lawmakers to charge the officer.
On Thursday, Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said that the policeman was fired following a hearing and that the firing will take effect in two weeks' time.
In the hearing, the officer's lawyer said he wanted to resign from the service. However, the police decide to reject his resignation and fired him instead.
The Justice Ministry's Police Internal Investigations Department has yet to announce if it will charge the policeman.
