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Ahed Tamimi 'agrees plea bargain' for assaulting an Israeli soldier in the West Bank

She will serve three more months in prison, according to Israeli media reports

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Ahed Tamimi has reportedly reached a plea bargain that would see her sentenced to eight months in prison at her trial for the alleged assault of an Israeli soldier.

Reports on Wednesday said the 17-year-old Palestinian teenager was expected to admit to four counts of assault in an arrangement that still required the approval of the military court.

The breakthrough apparently came in a closed hearing of the trial and has not yet been formally presented to the court.

Ms Tamimi was arrested on December 19 last year, when still aged 16, after slapping a soldier in an incident that gained high-profile coverage after a video recording went viral.

As part of her plea bargain it was said on Wednesday that she would confess to assaulting the soldier in the video and to inciting violence by sharing the film on social media.

She is also said to be willing to confess to two counts of disrupting Israeli army activity.

Ms Tamimi has remained in detention for over three months.

The Military Court of Appeals rejected a call to hold her trial in open court, controversially claiming that in-camera hearings are more likely to secure a minor a fair trial.

Having already served three months, the plea bargain would see Ms Tamimi spend a further five months in prison.

Her original indictment included five counts of assaults by security forces, including stone-throwing in several incidents. 

Her charges were assaulting a soldier under aggravated circumstances, threatening a soldier, disrupting a soldier, inciting and throwing objects at a person or property.

Calling for Ms Tamimi’s release, Amnesty International said on Monday that nothing she had done against armed soldiers wearing protective gear “can justify the continuing detention of a 16-year-old girl”.

But the court accepted the IDF prosecution’s argument that she has “a pattern of lawbreaking” which justified keeping her in detention until the end of her trial.

Ms Tamimi has gone on to achieve iconic status amongst Palestinians and supporters of their cause worldwide.

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