Israeli found guilty of murdering Palestinian teen
The Israeli ringleader in the murder of a Palestinian youth, who was abducted and burned to death in 2014, has been convicted of his murder
Ben David was found to have been sane when he murdered Mohammad Abu Khdair
An Israeli man was convicted of murdering a Palestinian teenager, as a Jerusalem court rejected his insanity plea for a crime that helped trigger the 2014 Gaza war.
Prosecutors said that 31-year-old Yosef Haim Ben-David was the ringleader behind the murder of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khudair, who was bludgeoned, strangled and burned alive in July 2014. Two of his accomplices – who were 17 and 16 at the time - were sentenced in February, one to life imprisonment and the other to a 21-year-term.
All three defendants had confessed to the crime and said that it was revenge for the killing a few days earlier of three Israeli youths by the Hamas group in the occupied West Bank. However, Ben-David lodged an insanity plea that held up his formal conviction and sentencing. After receiving psychological assessments, the court ruled that he “fully understood his actions” and found him guilty. He will be sentenced on 3 May.
The three Israelis had abducted Mohammad Abu Khdair at random as he stood on a road in the Shufat district of East Jerusalem.
The two youths then beat the Palestinian unconscious in the back of a car being driven by Ben David. One of the minors helped douse Mohammad Abu Khdair with petrol while he was still alive, before Ben David lit a match and set him on fire.
