An Israeli court has found Monday two Israeli teenagers guilty in the murder case of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, the 16-year-old Palestinian who was abducted, beaten and burned alive last year.
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The judge found that the two youths beat Abu Khudair unconscious in the back seat while Ben David drove into the forest.
Entering court before the ruling, Hussein Abu Khdeir, Mohammed’s father, expressed concern to reporters that the judges might clear the suspects. One of the youths helped douse Mohammad Abu Khdair with petrol while he was still alive, before Ben David lit a match and set him on fire, they added.
Two Israeli brothers received sentences earlier this year in a plea bargain.
Since then, 19 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks, mostly stabbings and shootings.
Mohammed Abu Khdeir suffered a horrific death after being kidnapped on July 2, 2014.
The Israeli military says it has shot and killed a Palestinian who was trying to stab an Israeli pedestrian at a busy West Bank junction.
At that time, the Palestinians accused three Israeli settlers for being behind committing the crime, while the Israeli police announced at that time that it started an investigation to the incident.
Ben-David has not spoken in court but Muhammad’s family said he was clearly sane and appeared lucid in videos shown in court. A Jerusalem court did not identify the convicted murderers because they are minors.
The attack was one of two this year to roil not only Palestinian, but Israeli, society, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu comes under increasing domestic and worldwide pressure to treat Israelis suspected of crimes against Palestinians more harshly, as decades-old complaints over unfair treatment of Palestinians in the legal system fuel an ongoing wave of violence in the country. “They kill him first, they demolish their house, they arrest their families”, said Ansam, referring to Israel’s renewed policy of leveling the homes of Palestinians accused of killing Israelis in knife attacks over recent months. Zaban said it would be examined separately, “despite regular and appropriate protocol” later in December. He said the last-minute insanity plea made a “joke of the court”.
Moreover if the court rules Ben-David was not mentally sound when he committed the kidnapping and murder, Ben-David will evade life in prison and serve time in a psychiatric ward until he is deemed mentally fit and released. The youthful defendants asserted that Ben David gave them “pills and energy drinks”. Within days of the crime, the three suspects confessed to police. The other was convicted of murder and abduction for the sake of murder.
Khdeir’s death prompted riots by Palestinians in Jerusalem.
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Palestinians say the Israeli justice system is too lenient on Jewish attackers.
