A man was convicted after kidnapping, torturing, and killing a Palestinian teenager. The case of Mohammed Abu Khudair will finally be put to a conclusion after Yosef Haim Ben-David was found guilty of murdering the teenager. His two other younger accomplices were sentenced in February.
As reported by Telegraph, the prosecutors found Ben-David of organizing the killing of Abu Khudair and voted against his insanity plea. Ben-David and his two other accomplices confessed that Abu Khudair's murder in July 02, 2014 was their form of revenge for the three Israeli youths killed by the Hamas Islamist group.
Ben-David's 17 year old and 16 year old accomplices were sentenced to a lifetime and 21 years of jail time respectively. According to Independent, Ben-David's filing of insanity plea slowed down the proceedings, however, he was eventually found to be sane and responsible for the crime he made.
In a surveillance video, the victim was found waiting outside a mosque before he was abducted. As reported by International Business Times, Abu Khudair was driven to the forest by the culprits, tortured, and burned alive. Ben-David also reportedly said the names of the murdered Israelis as Abu Khudair was being tortured
The delay in the proceedings spawned protests outside of the court by the victim's relatives. Israeli Arabs took part in the movement as well calling the proceedings as a double standard in the legal system.
"The court has found that at the time he committed the offence, the accused was not psychotic, fully understood the facts, was responsible for his actions, had no difficulty in understanding reality and had the capacity to prevent the crime,"an Israel ministry of justice spokesperson said.
Abu Khudair's father demanded that the Ben-David's house must be burned like they do for all other terrorists. The murder of Abu Khudair partially caused the 50-day conflict in Gaza, but his case will be concluded in May 3 as Ben-David is scheduled to be sentenced.
