Pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho defends white-clad mob that attacked civilians in Hong Kong MTR station, says they can be ‘pardoned for defending their home’ </s> Hundreds of masked assailants dressed in white have assaulted residents, protesters, journalists and a lawmaker in Yuen Long, hours after an anti-extradition law march ended.

Update: Hong Kong police made no arrests after mob assaulted commuters, protesters, journalists

The group used bamboo sticks and other weapons to attack people in the area and in the West Rail Line station, injuring Democratic Party lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting, who was seen bleeding from his mouth in a social media live stream.

Police officers were not visibly present when the skirmish occurred.

See also: Hong Kong police deploy tear gas, rubber bullets against protesters as gov’t slams ‘direct challenge to national sovereignty’

A photo circulated online by the Civil Human Rights Front, which organised the rally attended by “430,000” earlier in the day, showed a person with multiple bloody lashes on his back.

Update: Church worker and Demosisto member left severely injured by Yuen Long attackers

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The Front accused the police of failing to take actions in Yuen Long while people were being attacked and instead, unnecessarily firing tear gas at protesters in Sheung Wan.

“Real thugs have attacked passersby, a journalist and a lawmaker, badly injuring them, but the police have failed to enforce the law. This has angered us greatly,” the statement read.

The group said certain “powerful authorities” have been using “thugs” to attack protesters since the 2014 pro-democracy Umbrella Movement. “Hong Kong people must unite to oppose personal violence and structural violence,” they added.

Stand News reporter Gwyneth Ho said she was left bleeding and injured with swelling at the back of the head and slight dizziness after she was attacked. Ho was sent to hospital to receive treatment.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association said a male reporter was beaten and left bleeding in his mouth.

The men also took a reporter’s TV camera and destroyed it, the press freedom watchdog said.

Police in riot gear arrived at Yuen Long station at around 11:30pm.

The MTR announced at around 11pm that West Rail Line trains will not stop at Yuen Long because of the crowds gathering. Train services resumed at 11:25pm.

In a statement, a government spokesperson condemned the violent scenes: “This is absolutely unacceptable to Hong Kong as a society that observes the rule of law. The SAR Government strongly condemns any violence and will seriously take enforcement actions.”

Meanwhile, in a widely circulated online video, pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho could be seen applauding and giving a “thumbs up” to people dressed in white. He also shook hands with two men who held small Hong Kong bauhinia flags. When a man told Ho, “you are my idol,” the lawmaker replied: “All of you are my heroes.”

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Earlier, Yuen Long District Councillor To Ka-lun wrote in a Facebook post that he had received a complaint from a resident, who said he had called the police for help. However, he was told to “not go out into the streets” if he was afraid, To said. </s> Pro-democracy activists and lawmakers in Hong Kong have accused the police of standing by as men dressed in white attacked commuters and protesters, leaving 45 people hospitalised, including one who is critically injured.

Video footage showed dozens of men, mostly in masks, storming a mass transit station in Yuen Long late on Sunday, chasing passengers and beating them with sticks. Among those hurt in the attack were demonstrators returning from a large anti-government rally, as well as a pregnant woman and a woman holding a child, according to witnesses.

The footage, which emerged after an anti-government march by hundreds of thousands of people, caused widespread anger and condemnation as protesters and critics accused pro-Beijing officials of hiring thugs to intimidate protesters – a charge that Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam vehemently denied in a briefing Monday afternoon.

“Is Hong Kong now allowing triads to do what they want, beating up people on the street with weapons?” the Democratic party lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting, who was among the injured, asked reporters.

A former legislator previously with a pro-Beijing party that usually supports Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, also criticised her over the attack. James Tien on Facebook called on Lam to resign, writing: “Chief executive Lam, are you still a chief executive? Or are triads ruling Hong Kong now?”

The pro-democracy lawmaker Ray Chan tweeted: “Hong Kong has one of the world’s highest cop to population ratio. Where were @hkpoliceforce?” Another lawmaker Gary Fan said: “Hong Kong is no longer a safe city”.

Flanked by Hong Kong’s police commissioner, security chief and government ministers on Monday, Lam attempted to deflect blame by condemning both sides. “Violence will only breed more violence and at the end of the day the whole of Hong Kong and the people will suffer,” she said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Journalist Ryan Lau Chun Kong tends to his wounds after he was attacked at Yuen Long station. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Details of the attack shocked residents. A woman sobbed while recounting what happened during the Yuen Long attack, telling one witness in audio circulated online: “They beat people in the carriage indiscriminately whoever they were, even people who were returning home from work … Some men were shielding us. They didn’t fight back otherwise we would have been beaten even worse. They beat even women and children.”

Video filmed inside the train showed passengers screaming and crying as they attempted to shield themselves with umbrellas. The attackers used metal and wooden rods, as well as canes and brooms.

Footage showed a young man dressed in black being punched and kneed in the stomach by several men. A female journalist was beaten while filming the attack. Photos showed commuters bleeding and smears of blood on the station ground.

When police arrived at the station after 11pm, the assailants had left and angry protesters demanded to know why they had taken so long to get there. Police left and the attackers later came back a second time, breaking into a closed gate of the train station.

Hong Kong’s hospital authority said 45 people between the ages of 18 and 64 were injured in the attack, including one man who was in a critical condition and three in a serious condition. Late on Monday, police said they had arrested five people – some of them allegedly Triads – in relation to the attacks on charges of “unlawful assembly”.

Ray Chan (@ray_slowbeat) Snippet of a live broadcast from lawmaker Lam Cheuk ting, showing self-professed pro-Gov't mobsters attacking passengers in train cars at #MTR #YuenLong Stn. #HongKong has 1 of the world's highest cop to population ratio. Where were @hkpoliceforce? Lam was injured as shown live. pic.twitter.com/Aq5JmJlf5u

On Monday, Yoho Mall, a shopping centre connected to the Yuen Long mass transit station, said some shops had closed amid rumours the armed men would return in the evening. Businesses outside the station in Yuen Long were also closed on Monday afternoon, leaving the normally colourful streets eerily quiet. Local public recreation centres were closed at 7pm due to “public safety considerations,” according to Hong Kong’s leisure and cultural services department. Many shops in the normally bustling shopping centres in the towns of Shatin and Tuen Mun have also closed.

Hiring men to beat up protesters is not a new tactic, according to activists and observers, who say thugs were also behind attacks on pro-democracy protests in 2014. Men, possibly from southern China, where the practice is more common, heckled and assaulted demonstrators.

A widely circulated video showed the pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho, who lives in Yuen Long, shaking hands with men in white and giving them a thumbs up. In response to accusations that he had hired the men to go after protesters, Ho said in a press briefing on Monday that he had nothing to do with the attack. Asked why he did not call the police, Ho said: “They appeared to be normal residents, just like the protesters in your eyes.”

Protesters later covered Ho’s office in pro-democracy sticky notes and threw documents of his over an escalator. Several who covered their faces with scarves and hats later broke down a glass wall of his office in a shopping mall in Tsuen Wan. One poster on the wall stuck on by protesters said: “Rural bullies beat up people and carry out terrorist attacks!”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Junius Ho’s office after it was trashed by protesters. Photograph: Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images

In the early hours of Monday, morning police entered a village near the station in Yuen Long where groups of men in white had gathered but said they had seen no weapons and made no arrests because they “could not be sure of who was involved”.

On Monday, Lam and her colleagues were pressed on why police took so long to reach the attacks, even after several people had called emergency services. The police chief, Stephen Lo, said officers, at the time facing down protesters who had amassed near Beijing’s liaison office, had to be redeployed.

Lam was criticised after lambasting protesters for their “blatant challenge to national sovereignty” before condemning the Yuen Long attack in statements issued late on Sunday after protesters clashed with police. Asked if she would characterise the attack in Yuen Long as a terrorist attack, Lam said only that she condemned all kinds of violence.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Demonstrators march in Hong Kong on Sunday. Photograph: Ivan Abreu/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

The protests, which began over a bill that would allow suspects in Hong Kong to be extradited to mainland China, have take on wider demands, including an investigation into police behaviour. The violence in Yuen Long and the police’s response is likely to be the focus of another protest.

On Sunday, thousands of protesters attending a peaceful anti-government march defied the police-sanctioned route and pushed westwards to Beijing’s representative office in Hong Kong, where they graffitied the building’s walls, threw eggs at it, and defaced the emblem of the People’s Republic of China.

Speaking outside the building on Monday, Wang Zhimin, the director of Beijing’s liaison office, said an “illegal mob” had “seriously hurt the feelings of the entire Chinese people”. Chinese state media called the attack a “blatant challenge to the central government”.

The demonstrations challenge Beijing’s authority over the former British colony, returned to Chinese control in 1997. Under the one country, two systems framework, Hong Kong is meant to maintain a high degree of autonomy from the mainland, with an independent judiciary and a free press. But critics say they have witnessed Hong Kong’s freedoms quickly disappearing.

Among protesters’ demands are democratic reforms that would give Hong Kongers the ability to directly elect their leaders. Protest groups have vowed to continue until their demands are met. “I don’t see this ending. It looks like it’s just going to escalate … it’s almost becoming ungovernable,” said Victoria Hui, a political scientist from Hong Kong, now at Notre Dame University. </s> Thousands of gay and bisexual men convicted under the UK’s historical anti-gay laws have been posthumously pardoned after the so-called “Turing’s Law” took effect today (January 31).

The “historic moment” was confirmed by the Ministry of Justice after the Policing and Crime Bill received Royal Assent from the Queen.

The legislation – first announced last year – pardons an estimated 49,000 men convicted of consensual same-sex relations before the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales in 1967.

It also offers statutory pardons to people who are still alive, although they must apply through the Home Office’s disregard process to have historical offences removed.

Justice Minister Sam Gyimah said: “This is a truly momentous day. We can never undo the hurt caused, but we have apologised and taken action to right these wrongs.”

“I am immensely proud that ‘Turing’s Law’ has become a reality under this government.”

Turing’s Law takes its name from British World War Two code-breaker Alan Turing, who took his own life in 1954, less than two years after being convicted of gross indecency and undergoing effective chemical castration.

After Turing received a Royal Pardon in 2013, calls grew for legislation to be implemented to pardon all men convicted under the laws.

UK-based LGBT charity Stonewall said of the news: “This is significant. And it’s as important to the whole lesbian, gay, bi and trans community, as it is for the gay and bi men affected. The more equality is enshrined into our law books, the stronger our equality becomes, and the stronger we as a community become.

“Earlier this month the Government issued a clear and powerful apology to every gay and bi man who had been unjustly criminalised for being who they are.

“This is not just equality for gay and bi men; the passing of this law is justice.”

The news comes almost two years after Turing’s family, joined by Attitude’s then-editor Matthew Todd, delivered a petition to Downing Street – signed by more than half a million people – calling for posthumous pardons of gay men.

You can apply to remove convictions and cautions for gross indecency by downloading this form and submitting it to the Home Office.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales, we’re interviewing 12 of our all-time heroes who’ve changed the face of LGBT life for people in Britain and around the globe. You can download and listen to episode one, featuring ‘Lord of the Rings’ star Sir Ian McKellen, below:

More stories:

 Sir Ian McKellen talks life before legalisation in first ever episode of Attitude Heroes

 Sydney gay killings of ’80s and ’90s inspired new Australian drama ‘Deep Water’ </s> Anger soared in Hong Kong today over a vicious assault on pro-democracy protesters by suspected triad gangsters that left dozens wounded, a dramatic escalation of the political turmoil plaguing the Chinese city.

The financial hub's roiling unrest took a dark turn late Sunday when gangs of men - most wearing white T-shirts and carrying bats, sticks and metal poles - set upon anti-government demonstrators as they returned from another huge march earlier that day.

Footage from the attack circulating on social media showed people screaming as the men beat groups of protesters and journalists in Yuen Long station and inside subway trains, leaving pools of blood on the floor.

Hospital authorities said 45 people were wounded in the attack, with one man in critical condition and five others with serious injuries.

Critics rounded on the city's embattled police force by accusing them of colluding with those who carried out the attack.

Protesters said officers of took more than an hour to reach the station despite frantic calls from those under attack, and then failing to arrest the armed assailants who stayed in the streets around the station into this morning.

Some men in white shirts were later filmed leaving the scene in cars with Chinese mainland number plates.

One video showed pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho shaking hands with the suspected gang members after the the attack, praising them as his heroes.

Witnesses of the attack, including Democratic lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting, said the men appeared to target black-shirted passengers who had been at the anti-government march.

Lam, who was wounded in the face and hospitalised, said the police ignored calls he made, pleading with them to intervene and prevent bloodshed.

'They deliberately turned a blind eye to these attacks by triads on regular citizens,' he told Reuters, saying the floors of the station were streaked with blood.

'Their very barbaric and violent acts have already completely violated the bottom line of Hong Kong's civilised society,' he told reporters early today.

A senior district police commander, Yau Nai-keung, said an initial police patrol had to wait reinforcements given a situation involving more than 100 people.

Yau told reporters the police had not made any arrests at the station or during a follow-up search of a nearby village, but were investigating.

Witnesses saw groups of men in white with poles and bamboo staves at the village but Yau said police saw no weapons when they arrived. Following some questioning of the men, they were allowed to leave, he told reporters.

'We can't say you have a problem because you are dressed in white and we have to arrest you. We will treat them fairly no matter which camp they are in,' Yau said.

Furious fellow pro-democracy lawmakers held a press conference on Monday where they accused the city's pro-Beijing leaders of turning a blind eye to the attacks.

'This is triad gangs beating up Hong Kong people,' fumed Alvin Yeung. 'Yet you pretend nothing had happened?'

The clashes have ratcheted up concern that the city's feared triad gangs are wading into the political conflict.

Yuen Long lies in the New Territories near the Chinese border where the criminal gangs and staunchly pro-Beijing rural committees remain influential.

Similar assaults by pro-government vigilantes against demonstrators during the 2014 'Umbrella Movement' protests were blamed on triads.

Hong Kong has been plunged into its worst crisis in recent history by weeks of marches and sporadic violent confrontations between police and pockets of hardcore protesters.

The initial protests were lit by a now-suspended bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, but they have since evolved into a wider movement calling for democratic reforms, universal suffrage and a halt to sliding freedoms in the semi-autonomous territory.

The city's parliament was trashed by protesters earlier this month, as Beijing's authority faces its most serious challenge since Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997.

As the mob rampage unfolded in Yuen Long police were simultaneously battling hardcore democracy protesters in the middle of the city's commercial district.

Riot officers fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters, hours after China's Hong Kong Liaison Office was daubed with eggs and graffiti in a vivid rebuke to Beijing's rule.

Wang Zhimin, the head of the office, blasted the protesters on Monday, saying they had insulted 'all Chinese people' as he called on Hong Kong's government to pursue the 'rioters'.

Xinhua added the demonstration 'blatantly challenged the authority of the central government' and was 'absolutely intolerable'.

Earlier in the day, another huge and peaceful anti-government march had made its way through the city -- the seventh weekend in a row that residents have come out en masse.

Six weeks of huge protests have done little to persuade the city's unelected leaders -- or Beijing -- to change tack on the hub's future.

Under the 1997 handover deal with Britain, China promised to allow Hong Kong to keep key liberties such as its independent judiciary and freedom of speech.

But many say those provisions are already being curtailed, citing the disappearance into mainland custody of dissident booksellers, the disqualification of prominent politicians and the jailing of pro-democracy protest leaders.

Authorities have also resisted calls for the city's leader to be directly elected by the people.

Protesters have vowed to keep their movement going until their core demands -- such as an independent inquiry into police tactics, an amnesty for those arrested, a permanent withdrawal of the bill, universal suffrage and Lam's resignation -- are met.

There is little sign that either Lam or Beijing will budge.

Beyond agreeing to suspend the extradition bill there have been few other concessions and fears are rising that Beijing's patience is running out. </s> Anger soared in Hong Kong today over a vicious assault on pro-democracy protesters by suspected triad gangsters that left dozens wounded, a dramatic escalation of the political turmoil plaguing the Chinese city.

The financial hub's roiling unrest took a dark turn late last night when gangs of men - most wearing white T-shirts and carrying bats, sticks and metal poles - set upon anti-government demonstrators as they returned from another huge march earlier that day.

Footage from the attack circulating on social media showed people screaming as the men beat groups of protesters and journalists in Yuen Long station and inside subway trains, leaving pools of blood on the floor.

Hospital authorities said 45 people were wounded in the attack, with one man in critical condition and five others with serious injuries.

There are fears that more violent attacks would be carried out by triads today, prompting businesses in Yoho Mall, which is connected to the metro station, to close early, according to Apple Daily.

Critics rounded on the city's embattled police force by accusing them of colluding with those who carried out the attack.

Protesters said officers took more than an hour to reach the station despite frantic calls from those under attack, and failing to arrest the armed assailants who stayed in the streets around the station into this morning.

Some men in white shirts were later filmed leaving the scene in cars with Chinese mainland number plates.

One video showed pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho shaking hands with the suspected gang members after the attack, praising them as his heroes.

Witnesses of the attack, including Democratic lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting, said the men appeared to target black-shirted passengers who had been at the anti-government march.

Lam, who was wounded in the face and hospitalised, said the police ignored calls he made, pleading with them to intervene and prevent bloodshed.

'They deliberately turned a blind eye to these attacks by triads on regular citizens,' he told Reuters, saying the floors of the station were streaked with blood.

'Their very barbaric and violent acts have already completely violated the bottom line of Hong Kong's civilised society,' he told reporters early today.

Bowie Tin, 28, said she was travelling on the subway on her way home when the train stopped at Yuen Long station at about 10:55pm for more than 15 minutes.

'There were protesters dressed in black telling people not to get off the train because there was an ongoing attack downstairs at the station lobby,' she told MailOnline.

'They were also asking if there are doctors or nurses on the train because some people were hit in the head and were bleeding,' she added. 'I went out and saw masked men dressed in white attacking people in front of children, women and elderly people.'

'It was horrifying. I wanted to cry. I prayed for the train doors to close as soon as possible and I feared for my life,' she said.

A senior district police commander, Yau Nai-keung, said an initial police patrol had to wait reinforcements given a situation involving more than 100 people.

Yau told reporters the police had not made any arrests at the station or during a follow-up search of a nearby village, but were investigating.

Witnesses saw groups of men in white with poles and bamboo staves at the village but Yau said police saw no weapons when they arrived. Following some questioning of the men, they were allowed to leave, he told reporters.

'We can't say you have a problem because you are dressed in white and we have to arrest you. We will treat them fairly no matter which camp they are in,' Yau said.

Chief Superintendent John Tse Chun-chung, head of the police public relations bureau, denied the accusations, despite it taking officers more than half an hour to arrive at the scene.

'I cannot agree. Just because we were not at the scene right away, doesn't mean we colluded with any party,' he said in a radio programme today.

Furious pro-democracy lawmakers held a press conference today where they accused the city's pro-Beijing leaders of turning a blind eye to the attacks.

'This is triad gangs beating up Hong Kong people,' fumed Alvin Yeung. 'Yet you pretend nothing had happened?'

The clashes have ratcheted up concern that the city's feared triad gangs are wading into the political conflict.

Yuen Long lies in the New Territories near the Chinese border where the criminal gangs and staunchly pro-Beijing rural committees remain influential.

Similar assaults by pro-government vigilantes against demonstrators during the 2014 'Umbrella Movement' protests were blamed on triads.

As the mob rampage unfolded in Yuen Long police were simultaneously battling hardcore democracy protesters in the middle of the city's commercial district.

Riot officers fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters, hours after China's Hong Kong Liaison Office was daubed with eggs and graffiti in a vivid rebuke to Beijing's rule.

Wang Zhimin, the head of the office, blasted the protesters on Monday, saying they had insulted 'all Chinese people' as he called on Hong Kong's government to pursue the 'rioters'.

Xinhua added the demonstration 'blatantly challenged the authority of the central government' and was 'absolutely intolerable'.

Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam said the targeting of the office was a 'challenge' to national sovereignty, condemning violent behaviour of any kind.

She also described as 'shocking' the attack by organised triad criminal gangs on ordinary citizens and protesters at Yuen Long, saying authorities would investigate fully.

Earlier in the day, another huge and peaceful anti-government march had made its way through the city - the seventh weekend in a row that residents have come out en masse.

Hong Kong has been plunged into its worst crisis in recent history by weeks of marches and sporadic violent confrontations between police and pockets of hardcore protesters.

The initial protests were lit by a now-suspended bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, but they have since evolved into a wider movement calling for democratic reforms, universal suffrage and a halt to sliding freedoms in the semi-autonomous territory.

The city's parliament was trashed by protesters earlier this month, as Beijing's authority faces its most serious challenge since Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997.

Six weeks of huge protests have done little to persuade the city's unelected leaders - or Beijing - to change tack on the hub's future.

Under the 1997 handover deal with Britain, China promised to allow Hong Kong to keep key liberties such as its independent judiciary and freedom of speech.

But many say those provisions are already being curtailed, citing the disappearance into mainland custody of dissident booksellers, the disqualification of prominent politicians and the jailing of pro-democracy protest leaders.

Authorities have also resisted calls for the city's leader to be directly elected by the people.

Protesters have vowed to keep their movement going until their core demands - such as an independent inquiry into police tactics, an amnesty for those arrested, a permanent withdrawal of the bill, universal suffrage and Lam's resignation - are met.

There is little sign that either Lam or Beijing will budge.

Beyond agreeing to suspend the extradition bill there have been few other concessions and fears are rising that Beijing's patience is running out. </s> Sgt. Elor Azaria, the Israeli soldier convicted of manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a wounded Palestinian assailant, was sentenced to 18 months in military prison Tuesday.

The Palestinian, Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, 21, was one of two men accused of stabbing another Israeli soldier in the West Bank city of Hebron in March.

Charges were brought against Azaria after video footage emerged showing him shooting Sharif in the head as he lay on the ground, injured and already subdued. The second Palestinian suspect had already been shot dead.

The judge announced Azaria will be demoted to the rank of private, and handed him a 12-month probation on top of his prison sentence.

A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces explained that the time Azaria has spent in open detention will not count towards his 18-month sentence, which he will begin serving in 12 days time.

The spokesperson also confirmed that Azaria has the right to an appeal.

Abu Al-Abed Al-Sharif, the father of the Palestinian, said he did not expect the court to have treated the case so fairly.

“We didn’t expect an Israeli court to be fair with Palestinians, the only reason for this is having this crime recorded on a camera,” he told CNN.

Approximately 150 protesters gathered outside the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, where the military court is located, as the sentencing commenced.

A number of right-wing activists supporting Azaria were present with banners.

One protestor held up a banner saying “Death to Terrorists.” Another banner read: “The people of Israel support and salute the hero soldier Elor Azaria.”

Naftali Bennett, minister of education and head of the right-wing Jewish Home party, called for an immediate pardon.

“The security of the citizens of Israel requires immediate pardon for Elor Azaria who was sent to defend us,” Bennett wrote on Twitter.

He added: “The process was polluted. It is forbidden for Elor to sit in prison, for all of us will pay the price.”

The case against Azaria has divided opinion among the Israeli public, politicians and members of the military, and focused attention on the military’s code of ethics.

The incident took place while Azaria was serving in Hebron, a largely Palestinian city in the West Bank with a small population of Israeli settlers. The Israeli soldier who had been attacked suffered a minor injury.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, Azaria arrived at the scene approximately 11 minutes after the attack, cocked his rifle and shot Sharif in the head, killing him.

Azaria denied the charges against him, but a three-member panel of military judges was unanimous in finding him guilty of manslaughter and improper conduct.

At the heart of the case was the motivation for Azaria’s actions. The soldier’s defense argued he felt his life was in danger, while the prosecution contended he was motivated by vengeance.

That defense was rejected by the judges.

The head judge, Col. Maya Heller, stated that Azaria was an “unreliable” witness and that his defense witnesses were also problematic. She called the shooting “needless.”

During sentencing, Col. Heller said the court took mitigating circumstances into account, acknowledging the incident took place “in hostile territory” while taking “note of the harm suffered by his family.”

But according to the Foreign Press Association, she also stated that Azaria had not expressed any remorse for his actions.

Imad Abu Shamsiyeh , the activist who filmed the incident, told CNN that the sentencing was “full of injustice.”

“It gives the legitimacy of killing more Palestinians with cold blood, only because they look suspicious,” he added.

The verdict was welcomed by Human Rights Watch.

“Sending Elor Azaria to prison for his crime sends an important message about reigning in excessive use of force,” said Sari Bashi, Israel and Palestine Advocacy Director at Human Rights Watch.

“But senior Israeli officials should also repudiate the shoot-to-kill rhetoric that too many of them have promoted, even when there is no imminent threat of death.

“Pardoning Azaria or reducing his punishment would only encourage impunity for unlawfully taking the life of another person.” </s> LONDON -- Thousands of men convicted under now-abolished anti-homosexuality laws in the United Kingdom have been pardoned posthumously under a law enacted Tuesday, and many more still alive can now apply to have their criminal convictions wiped out.

Announcing the new law, the Ministry of Justice said the pardons apply automatically to deceased men who were convicted for consensual same-sex relations before homosexuality was decriminalized several decades ago. Men living with convictions can apply to the government to have their names cleared.

"This is a truly momentous day. We can never undo the hurt caused, but we have apologized and taken action to right these wrongs," Justice Minister Sam Gyimah said.

Calls for a general pardon have noted the 1954 suicide of World War II code-breaking hero Alan Turing after his conviction for "gross indecency." After he received a posthumous royal pardon in 2013, pressure for pardons intensified.

Turing, a computer science pioneer, helped crack Nazi Germany's secret codes by creating the "Turing bombe," a forerunner of modern computers. His work helped shorten World War II, and he was an innovator of artificial intelligence.

After the war, Turing was prosecuted for having sex with a man, stripped of his security clearance and forcibly treated with female hormones. He died at age 41 after eating an apple laced with cyanide.

What is now known as "Turing's law" had been a long-standing government commitment, Gyimah said. It is part of the Policing and Crime Bill which received royal approval on Tuesday.

Activist Peter Tatchell, who had campaigned for 30 years for the pardons and an apology from the British government, welcomed the new law, but said it "has connotations of forgiveness for a wrong done."

The law will "remedy the grave injustices suffered by many of the estimated 50,000 to 100,000 men who were convicted under discriminatory anti-gay laws between 1885 and 2003," he said in a statement.

Tatchell noted some omissions in the legislation, including pardons for men convicted of soliciting and procuring same-sex partners under the sexual offenses acts of 1956 and 1967. Nor did it pardon "those people, including some lesbians, convicted for same-sex kissing and cuddling" under a variety of laws.

The ministry said in its announcement that as well as posthumously pardoning gay and bisexual men, the law allows those still living, and who were convicted in cases of consensual sex with other men of legal age, to apply for pardons.

"This will ensure that due diligence is carried out and prevent people from claiming to be cleared of offenses that are still crimes, including sex with a minor and non-consensual sexual activity," it said. </s> An Israeli military court has sentenced a soldier to 18 months in prison for his fatal shooting of a Palestinian attacker who lay wounded on the ground.

After an 11-month saga that has deeply divided the country, the sentence against Sergeant Elor Azaria, which included a year’s probation and a demotion in rank, was lighter than expected. Prosecutors had asked for three to five years.

It still triggered disappointment among protesters who had gathered outside the Tel Aviv court and had hoped to see the soldier walk free. Politicians immediately called for Azaria to be pardoned.

He was convicted of manslaughter last month in a rare case of a military court ruling against a combat soldier for lethal action taken in the field.

The verdict marked a victory for commanders who said Azaria had violated the army’s code of ethics, but Azaria generated great support among the public, many of whom see him as a scapegoat for a misguided elite punishing a soldier they say responded to an armed attacker trying to kill other soldiers.

Azaria, an army medic, was caught on a mobile phone video in March shooting the wounded Palestinian, just after the man stabbed a soldier in the West Bank city of Hebron.

The Palestinian, Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, was lying on the ground unarmed when Azaria shot him in the head.

The shooting occurred at the height of a wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Azaria’s defenders said he shot the assailant in self-defence, and hardline politicians have said he should be either cleared or released with a light penalty, but his detractors, including senior military commanders, said his actions violated military procedures.
Pro-Beijing legislator Junius Ho applauds the assailants for their actions, saying they should be "pardoned for defending their homes" and calling them his "heroes".