Court rejects early release for child killer

The Lod District Court rules against the early release of Zvi Gur, who was sent to prison in 1980 for kidnapping and murdering 8-year-old boy Oron Yarden, overruling the parole board.

The move comes in response to an appeal by the State Attorney’s Office filed last month against the parole board’s decision to free Gur, with the court saying that proper weight was not given to the gravity of the crimes and their unusually cruel circumstances.

Yarden’s brother thanked the judges at the end of the hearing and said the decision was a “tremendous relief.”

Gur, who was 33 at the time he committed the murder, was originally sentenced to life imprisonment and an additional 34 years for kidnapping and blackmail. His sentence was subsequently commuted to a total of 45 years in 1999 by then-president Ezer Weizman.