be turned over to civilian authorities. The court declined the request in February 2005. Referred to in public only as Lieutenant R., (or Captain R.), the officer maintained that when he reached the girl's body, he came under fire from Palestinian militants at least away and shot at the ground to deter the fire. In an interview with the Associated Press, an Israeli military official stated that a soldier in the observation tower claimed the officer's fire was aimed at the girl's body and could offer no explanation as to why the officer shot into the ground rather than at the source of the fire. Lieutenant R. was released from custody in February 2005 after a key prosecution witness, another IDF lieutenant, who had told the military police investigation that he saw R. fire two individual bullets, followed by a volley, into Al-Hams' body, recanted his testimony under intensive cross examination. Earlier, another lookout also retracted parts of his initial testimony against R, attributed by human rights groups to heavy behind-the-scenes military pressure. Though Lieutenant R. had admitted firing two shots into the girl's body from close range to "verify the kill", he denied shooting subsequently. His lawyers, Yoav Meni and Elad Eisenberg, said the practice of "verifying the kill" was used regularly by the IDF to eliminate immediate threats. Acquittal On 15 November 2005, a military tribunal acquitted Captain R., clearing him of all the charges against him. Upon hearing the verdict, Captain R., burst into tears and turned to the public benches and said: "I told you I was innocent." Iman's father, Samir al-Hams, responded to the verdict by saying that from the outset there was no intention to hold the officer accountable:"They did not charge him with Iman's murder, only with small offences, and now they say he is innocent of those even though he shot my daughter so many times ... This was the cold-blooded murder of a girl. The soldier murdered her once and the court has murdered her again. What is the message? They are telling their soldiers to kill Palestinian children." The Palestinian National Authority condemned the verdict. Military police investigation into first investigation In February 2006, Ha'aretz newspaper reported that a military police internal investigation found that there were major failures in the October 2004 investigation into the killing of al-Hams. Two reservist officers appointed by Military Police Commander Brigadier General Roni