The five terrorists who hurled rocks at the Biton family car in 2013 and critically wounded two-year-old baby Adelle, ultimately resulting in her death two years later, will be sent to 15 years in prison and will be found guilty of manslaughter and not murder under a plea bargain signed with their attorneys, Channel 1 News reported on Thursday.
Under the arrangement, all five terrorists will confess to and be convicted of manslaughter, receive a prison sentence of 15 years and each will pay 30,000 shekels to the Biton family. The plea agreement is set to be approved shortly by the military court in Samaria, according to Channel 1.
Adelle was critically wounded when the family car was attacked outside of Ariel in Samaria by Arab terrorists, who hurled rocks at the vehicle and caused it to veer off the road and crash headfirst into a truck.
The fist-sized rock struck Adelle directly in the head, leaving the two-year-old baby critically wounded and in mortal danger. Doctors said her recovery from the blow was nothing short of miraculous.
Adelle had been in and out of the hospital for two years following the attack in a grueling rehabilitation period, and died in February of 2015 after her condition deteriorated rapidly from a bout of pneumonia.
Adele's mother, Dr. Adva Biton, responded on Thursday on her Facebook page to the plea bargain, writing, "So unfortunately it ended in a plea bargain of 15 years!!! For the murderers of my wonderful Adelle. The legal system of the State of Israel prefers to disconnect itself from the reality on the ground."
Biton said that throughout the trial of the five terrorists, there was a concern that the court would claim that there was no causal connection between the rock attack and Adelle’s death.
"This is a delusional argument; we preferred to accept the plea bargain rather than going for broke, in light of the legal precedents in our country when it comes to enforcement of laws against rocker throwers," she explained.
The bereaved mother criticized the fact that the terrorists will be convicted of manslaughter only. "How much longer will this continue? So many cases, so many casualties. We frequently witness incidents of rock throwing that result in death. Alexander Levlovich who died from a rock thrown at him last Erev Rosh Hashanah, Yonatan and Asher Palmer and others. In these cases too there is no causal connection! What a disgrace!!!"
"Unfortunately, every day in our country people are murdered for nationalistic reasons. A nation which wants to live must protect itself. We must act these days as we do in times of war," wrote Biton.