Suspect’s conviction in murder of Palestinian teen delayed by insanity claim
Two minors found guilty of kidnapping, burning alive Muhammad Abu Khdeir, 16, last year, but main defendant’s fate still to be decided
The Jerusalem District Court on Monday found three defendants guilty in the kidnapping and murder of Palestinian teen Muhammad Abu Khdeir.
Two minors and an adult were found guilty on all counts, but the adult defendant, Yosef Ben David, won’t be formally convicted until his insanity plea is resolved, the court said.
The two minors, who were not named, were convicted on counts of murder and kidnapping.
The court said in a statement that the matter of Ben Yosef’s mental insanity plea will be discussed on December 20. He was nonetheless found guilty of murder, abduction for the sake of murder, attempted aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault and attempted arson.
One of the minors was convicted on charges of attempted aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault, attempted arson, murder and abduction for the sake of murder. The second minor was convicted of murder and abduction for the sake of murder.
Sentencing for the two minors will take place on January 13, 2016.
The three Jewish defendants were convicted of kidnapping 16-year-old East Jerusalemite Abu Khdeir, a resident of the Shuafat neighborhood, beating him unconscious and then burning him alive on July 2, 2014.
The murder, coming a day after three Jewish teens who had been kidnapped in the West Bank were found dead near Hebron, sparked widespread riots in East Jerusalem.
The three were caught several days after the act and confessed to the deed during their investigation by the Shin Bet security service.
The group was led by Yosef Ben David, a 31-year-old ultra-Orthodox man from Jerusalem. The other two members of the group are minors identified by their Hebrew initials Aleph and Yod.
The boy’s father, Hussein Abu Khdeir, told Army Radio Monday morning ahead of the verdict that he sought a life sentence for the alleged murders of his son.
“We’re going to a psychologist, we’re thinking about Muhammad and about how he was burned, and it’s hard for us,” he said of the family’s struggle. “His brothers are afraid to leave the house at night, his younger brother sleeps with us in our room — he’s 14 years old.”
Ben David’s attorney Asher Ohayon claimed that his client was not responsible for his actions. He only produced a psychiatric opinion to back this claim last week and judges are awaiting its review.
Ben David never attempted to prove his innocence.
The three suspects reconstructed the kidnapping and murder during the investigation.
Uri Korb of the Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office concluded that Ben David was responsible for his actions and is fit to stand trial.
According to the Hebrew daily Haaretz, Korb presented evidence, including clips where Ben David seems alert and aware of his surroundings.
The defendants said the kidnapping was done in revenge for the kidnapping-murder of three Jewish teens in the West Bank the previous month.
Naftali Fraenkel, Gil-ad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach were kidnapped and killed by Hamas-affiliated terrorists on June 12, 2014. Their killers were caught in September of that year. The kidnapping-murders and the revenge killing of Abu Khdeir were key steps in an escalation that led to Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza that summer.
The two minors awaiting a ruling on their conviction Monday attempted during their trial to downplay their role in the murder, saying Ben David pressured them to assist him. They claimed that Ben David fed them energy drinks and pills in the hours leading up to the murder and one of them, Aleph, said that he was in Ben David’s car during the killing and burning of Abu Khdeir.
The minor identified as Yod claimed that even though he was not inside the car when Abu Khdeir was killed, he knew the act itself was perpetrated by Ben David, according to Haaretz. “He insists that Ben David carried out this act on his own. He confirms that they kidnapped him but didn’t know that it would lead to his death,” Yod’s lawyer, Zion Amir, said.
Abu Khdeir’s family was present at all court discussions.
Toward the end of court proceedings, Abu Khdeir’s father said a double standard was being deployed because the victim was Arab and the defendants were Jews.
“Why did they not destroy the houses of these three murderers until today? If this was Arab [terrorists] they would long ago have demolished their homes. It is because they burned my son alive that people go on stabbing sprees today,” he said.
The Times of Israel Community.