An off-duty policeman who fatally killed Ethiopian teenager Solomon Tekah in the Kiryat Haim neighbourhood of Haifa last month has been released from house arrest.

The decision comes after a judge completed investigations into the shooting.

Approval of the Police Internal Investigations Department is under restrictive conditions.

The officer is not allowed to enter the police station where he worked, contact anyone involved in the investigation and cannot leave the country.

Arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and living in a hotel since the June 30 incident, he was released on NIS 5,000 bail.

The case has now been transferred to the State Prosecutor’s Office.

Ethiopian community leaders have criticised the ruling.

“From the onset, the officer was treated with a forgiving attitude when he was placed under house arrest in a hotel, even though he shot and killed Solomon,” said lawyers representing the Tekah family.

“This forgiving attitude is very noticeable in light of the law enforcement’s usual policy of requesting detention in similar cases in order to prevent obstruction of criminal investigations.”

The Tekah family joined dozens of protesters outside the Prime Ministers’ office as the officer was being released.

In a bid to appease the Ethiopian community a Knesset plenum session on racism was held on Monday.

Mass protests took place across Israel in the aftermath of the tragedy with 111 officers and dozens of protesters injured, 136 people were arrested.

The shooting occurred after the officer, who’d ended his shift, approached Tekah and his friends as he suspected them of stealing a mobile phone.

The defendant claims during an ensuing altercation he felt that he was in mortal danger resulting in him firing his gun.

A preliminary investigation showed the gunshot was fired toward the floor, ricocheted and hit Tekah.

By Natalie Ash