Teen accomplice in Duma terror attack agrees to plea deal

The accomplice in the Duma terror attack reaches a plea agreement with the State Prosecutor’s Office under which he’ll avoid being convicted of planning the murders of the three Palestinians killed in the firebombing.

The 19-year-old, whose name is barred from publication as he was a minor at the time of the incident, will admit to having planned the torching of a Palestinian home in the northern West Bank four years ago. However, the indictment against him will be corrected to make no mention of toddler Ali Saad Dawabsha and his parents, Riham and Saad, who were murdered as a result.

Pending the approval of a Lod District Court judge, the agreement sees the suspect confess to conspiring to commit a crime motivated by racism — the same count for which he was charged in January 2016. However, the indictment will be corrected to specify the crime as having been arson, and not murder as had originally been the case.

An official for the prosecution tells The Times of Israel that the state agreed to the plea arrangement because the suspect was not present during the night of the incident. “For an unknown reason, the accused did not succeed in [reaching] the planned meeting between the defendant and the other that night,” the official quotes the indictment as having stated.

The State Prosecutor’s Office requests that the teen be sentenced to five-and-a-half years of actual jail time. The suspect has already been behind bars for roughly three years.

— Jacob Magid