A Jerusalem court on Monday convicted two Israeli youths in the grisly killing last year of 16-year-old Palestinian Mohammed Abu Khudair, while delaying a verdict for the third suspect in the case due to a last-minute insanity plea.
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Palestinians and the victim’s family harshly criticised the delay. Zaban said the late timing was “against regular and appropriate protocol”, but said the court would examine it and issue a verdict later in December.
Mohammed Abu Khdeir was abducted outside his home in Shuafat in East Jerusalem and driven to a forest, where he was burned alive on July 2, 2014.
Following the announcement that the Israeli teenagers’ bodies had been found, Israeli politicians made repeated calls for revenge. Within hours, the teen’s charred remains were found in the Jerusalem Forest in Givat Shaul.
“This is a very shocking incident that must be deeply probed”, said the girl’s attorney Tarek Bargout, who was referring to the shooting of his client not her suspected involvement in the stabbing attack.
Gadi Gevaryahu, who is the head of the Tag Meir anti-racism NGO, said the postponing of Ben David’s conviction was “disappointing”.
In his refusal to dismantle all illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Netanyahu is playing a unsafe game that could see Israel revert to being just another insignificant Mediterranean state dependent on U.S. aid and arms for survival.
During the trial, Abu Khdair’s father, Hussein, said Mr Ben David was trying to mislead the court.
A still image from a security camera video shows two of the suspects in the kidnapping and killing of Muhammad Abu Khudair. Ben-David has a history of mental illness and has been under medication for his condition, the original indictment said. 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.
Ben-David had been declared fit to stand trial by a government-appointed district psychiatrist. The other three suspects were released as unconnected with the crime.
The EU is a member of the global quartet, along with the United States, Russia and the United Nations, that conducts diplomacy with Israel and the Palestinians in a bid to end their decades-old conflict.
“The court behaves one way with Arabs and another way with Jews”, Abu Khudair said. I’m afraid that the court will eventually get them off the hook.
The Israeli army has considered the expulsion of the families of Palestinians, who reacted to the Israeli violations by attacking the Israelis. Abu Khdeir’s killing led to the worst riots in Jerusalem in a decade, spreading to Palestinian cities in Israel and the West Bank.
The Palestinian Prisoner Society reported, in a statement on Sunday, that Israeli forces arrested two Palestinian residents from Nablus and a minor from Tulkarem.
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According to the report, security officials are concerned that expelling West Bank Palestinians would be both ineffective and potentially harmful for Israel.
