Beersheba terrorist called ‘ticking bomb’ in previous case, but got light sentence

The terrorist who killed four Israelis in Beersheba yesterday was called by prosecutors a “ticking time bomb” in a previous security case, Channel 12 news reports.

Palestinian media identified the stabber after the attack as 34-year-old Mohammad Ghaleb Abu al-Qi’an, a terror convict from the Bedouin town of Hura in the Negev. He served four years in prison for plotting to join the Islamic State and was released in 2019.

The judge in the previous case, Yoel Eden considered his crimes to be severe, but gave him a relatively light sentence because he believed he was no longer a threat, the report says.

During his sentencing in the previous case, the prosecution said, “The State of Israel is a country plagued by terror, and the security damage is made much more severe when it’s caused by Israeli citizens. Criminals like the defendant are a ticking time bomb, and it’s impossible to know when the countdown will begin.”

The prosecution asked that Abu al-Qi’an be sentenced to five years imprisonment, but the judge sentenced him to four years, a sentence considered at the low end for the crimes he committed.

Explaining the decision, the judge said, “The defendant expressed remorse and said he knows he was wrong and he will not repeat what he did. In light of what he said, and in particular due to his lack of a criminal record, the acceptance of responsibility and his sincere remorse, the punishment will be at the lower end of the threshold.”