On Monday, November 30, the two Jewish teenagers were found guilty of murder by an Israeli court, for kidnapping and killing of Muhammad Abu Khdeir, a 16-year-old Palestinian who was burned to death in a Jerusalem forest in July 2014.
Two minors and an adult were found guilty on all counts. But the adult defendant, Yosef Ben David, won’t be formally convicted until his insanity plea is resolved, the court said.
Because they were minors at the time of the crime, the two Jewish teenagers’ names have been kept confidential.
One of the minors was convicted on charges of attempted aggravated kidnapping, assault, and murder. The second minor was convicted of murder and abduction.
The killing took place shortly after three Jewish youths, who had been kidnapped in the West Bank, were found murdered near Hebron.
The court ruling held that all three of the accused committed the abduction, beating and murder of Abu Khdeir. However, the verdict in the case of Yossef Haim Ben-David, 31-year-old, described in court as the main troublemaker of the crime.
Earlier in the case at Jerusalem district court, an attempt by Ben David’s legal team to claim insanity was rejected after the court ruled no evidence of insanity had been produced.
Mr. Ben David, who ran an eyewear shop in Jerusalem and lived in the West Bank settlement of Adam, was treated for obsessive-compulsive disorder among other illnesses, according to court documents. A pretrial psychiatric evaluation, however, found him fit to stand trial.
The boy’s father, Hussein Abu Khdeir, told Army Radio Monday morning ahead of the verdict that he sought a life sentence for the alleged murders of his son.
Toward the end of court proceedings, Abu Khdeir’s father said a double standard was being deployed because the victim was Arab and the defendants were Jews.
