Palestinian gets 16 years for stabbing police last year

Old City resident Mussa Ajlouni, 20, pleads guilty to two counts of attempted murder in December 26 attack

By AFP and ToI Staff 11 November 2015, 7:05 pm

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Musa Ajlouni is escorted by Israeli prison officers as he arrives to his sentencing hearing at the District Court in Jerusalem on November 11, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

A Jerusalem court jailed a Palestinian man Wednesday for 16 years for the December stabbing of two Israeli Border Police in East Jerusalem.

The court said Mussa Ajlouni, 20, from Jerusalem’s Old City, pleaded guilty in a plea bargain to two counts of attempted murder over the December 26 attack on the officers, near his home.

Police at the time described the injuries as light, but the charge sheet said one of the officers suffered damage to tendons and nerves in his hand and required further treatment.

The other victim had a cut to his neck.

The court was told that Ajlouni had a history of drug abuse and violent crime

The attack came at a time of frequent clashes in Jerusalem, as well as a series of “lone-wolf” attacks, mainly vehicular, on Israeli civilians.

A more intense round of violence erupted at the start of October 2015. So far, 11 Israelis have died in a series of attacks by Palestinian assailants against Israeli civilians and security forces.

At least 77 Palestinians have died over the same time period, many of them while carrying out attacks.