An Israeli court has found two Israeli teenagers guilty in the murder case of a 16-year-old Palestinian who was abducted, beaten and burned alive last year. Their names weren’t let go under Israeli law.
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Within a day, the two minors had also confessed and reenacted the murder for the police.
His father, Hussein Abu Khdeir, called the decision to delay a verdict for Ben-David a “crime”, and “utterly meaningless”, according to reports.
Israeli police said the Palestinian teenagers used this pair of scissors in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem. I’m afraid that the court will eventually get them off the hook.
The third suspect has had his verdict delayed after a last minute insanity plea.
Within their opinion, the judges decided that Abu Khdair was abducted by the three defendants as he stood in the Shufat district of East Jerusalem on a road. The two accomplices, beat the Palestinian teen unconscious in the back of a auto being driven by Ben David, according to their court confessions. The court held off announcing a verdict for Ben-David because his legal team filed a last-minute psychiatric submission claiming he was not mentally responsible for his actions.
While he was living, before a match lit and set him on fire among the minors helped douse Mohammad Abu Khdair, they added.
Israel immediately blamed the kidnappings on militants from Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls Gaza, rounding up hundreds of suspected members in the West Bank.
Rocket attacks and airstrikes between Israel and Gaza continued for weeks.
Israeli forces have killed 96 Palestinians, many of whom were carrying out assaults and others in clashes with police and troops.
The killing enraged many Palestinians while it shocked Israelis. The youthful defendants asserted that Ben David gave them “pills and energy drinks”.
Ansam, who has attended nearly every court session since the trial began, said she did not expect the family to receive justice. Minors found guilty of murder can be held for life, but the punishment is usually lighter, he said.
The judges found that Mr Ben David, who during the trial was portrayed as the ringleader, had participated in the abduction and murder. Abu Khdeir’s killing led to the worst riots in Jerusalem in a decade, spreading to Palestinian cities in Israel and the West Bank.
Monday’s convictions come amid a wave of bloodshed between Israelis and Palestinians that has left 19 Israelis and at least 98 Palestinians dead, including 63 said by Israel to be attackers.
Many of them have been young people, including teenagers, reflecting anger and lost hope over Israel’s occupation, the Palestinians’ fractured leadership and the complete lack of progress in peace efforts, analysts say.
A ministry statement said that Netanyahu had asked them to carry out “a reassessment of the involvement of European Union bodies in everything that is connected to the diplomatic process with the Palestinians”. One was also convicted of attempting to kidnap a Palestinian youth on the night before Abu Khdeir’s abduction.
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The Palestine Liberation Organisation’s secretary general, Saeb Erekat, has said that it could soon move forward on changing longstanding links with Israel, including security coordination, if Netanyahu’s government does not take steps toward peace.
