Palestinian who rammed car into police gets 25 years in prison
Jerusalem District Court also orders Mohammad Salima pay NIS 260,000 in damages for injuring five in Jerusalem attack
The Jerusalem District Court sentenced a Palestinian man who careened his car into four Border Police officers and an Israeli cyclist in March to 25 years in prison.
Mohammad Salima, 21, from East Jerusalem’s Ras al-Amud neighborhood, in March confessed to assaulting Israeli soldiers in an attack that left four Border Police officers and a civilian injured on the Jewish holiday of Purim, according to a police statement.
As part of a plea deal, Salima was found guilty of five counts of attempted murder.
Salima was also ordered to pay NIS 260,000 ($69,000) in damages to the victims of the attack, Israel Radio reported.
Police said Salima told investigators that he plotted to harm Jews for a week beforehand.
Espying the Border Police officers in the crosswalk outside a base on Route 1, he allegedly reversed at a high rate of speed into the women, striking them and a 50-year-old cyclist.
Exiting the vehicle armed with an ax, he was shot by soldiers standing nearby, who incapacitated him before taking him into custody.
The attack took place during the Jewish holiday of Purim, and broke several months of calm in Jerusalem after a spate of vehicular terror attacks in the capital and West Bank in October and November.