Knifeman (illustrative)
Knifeman (illustrative)iStock
The family of a Jewish youth who was stabbed by a terrorist in the Old City a year-and-a-half ago is fuming over the light sentence the terrorist has received.

Recently, the prosecution updated Attorney Menashe Yadu from the Honenu organization, which is accompanying the victim’s family, that judge of the Jerusalem district court Rafi Carmel sentenced the terrorist to only 9 years in prison, despite the serious and intentional injury, the likes of which generally leads to a sentence of up to 20 years, inflicted by the terrorist.

Judge Carmel established that, despite the serious nature of the incident and the fact that the range of punishment was between 8 and 16 years, the terrorist was to serve a sentence at the lower end of the range. He reasoned that leniency was in order because the terrorist had admitted to his action, which was caught on a security camera, and because of the terrorist’s personal circumstances involving his alcoholism and his sister’s drug addiction, which, Carmel claimed, led the terrorist to his actions independently of his Jew-hatred.

It is worthy of note that the terrorist has a criminal background, including in assault. The prosecution told the victim’s family that it is planning on appealing the decision. The prosecution has requested to sentence the terrorist to between 13 and 20 years in prison.

The family of the victim, in the meantime, is enraged by the light sentence. If the terrorist gets a sentence reduction of a third, he could potentially be freed in only four-and-a-half years. “This is a mockery on the part of the legal system,” said Nahman Revivo, the brother of the injured victim. “They are abandoning our blood and, in the meantime, more and more attacks keep happening and the legal system doesn’t get tougher on these murderers.”

“There was an attempt at first-degree murder here, the terrorist attacked my brother with a 30- cm knife to his back. With God’s help, he was not murdered - but that doesn’t mean that you give a light punishment. We really hope that they will appeal to the Supreme [Court] and that [the terrorist] will get a punishment that will deter other potential terrorists.”

Attorney Menashe Yadu from the Honenu organization accompanying the family had harsh words concerning the decision: “A sentence of 9 years, in a serious case in which two innocent Jews were stabbed for racist reasons, is a low and unfitting sentence. The legal system lost the justified opportunity to give a deterring punishment to the terrorist who effectively started the last ‘intifada.’ We bless the intentions of the prosecution to submit an appeal against the laxity of the sentence and we hope that the sentence will become fittingly more severe.”

As a result of the stabbings, the two victims suffered serious wounds; one of the victims still suffers from medical problems as a result of the stabbing.

It should be noted that the terrorist was not indicted for attempted murder - despite stabbing a Jewish youth in the back with a 30-cm knife. According to the prosecution, there was difficulty in proving attempted murder, even though the Facebook page of the terrorist was filled with nationalistic and inciteful material against Jews during the period before the attack.