Michal Halimi
Michal HalimiPolice spokesperson

An Arab terrorist convicted of murdering his Jewish lover last year has been sentenced to life imprisonment.

A Tel Aviv court handed down the sentence to Muhammad Kharoff, a resident of the PA-controlled city of Shechem, after he admitted earlier this month that he brutally murdered 29-year-old Michal Halimi last spring. Kharoff claimed that he murdered Halimi as a nationalist act, rather than as a crime of passion.

Halimi, a resident of the Samaria town of Adam, was reported missing by her husband Aharon in late May 2017. Two month later, Halimi’s body, then eight months pregnant, was found in the central Israeli city of Holon.

According to investigators, Kharoff had attempted to convince Halimi to return with him to Shechem, but Halimi refused. Kharoff later strangled Halimi, threw her to the ground, and smashed her head with a cement block. After he dumped sand, leaves, and a tire over the body to conceal it, Kharoff fled the scene.

On Sunday, the court sentenced Kharoff to life imprisonment, and ordered him to pay 258,000 shekels ($74,730) in damages.

During their investigation, police determined that Halimi had been having an extramarital affair with Muhammad Kharoff, a resident of the PA-controlled city of Shechem.

According to investigators, Halimi had visited Kharoff’s residence in Shechem on multiple occasions, and had lived there for a period of time.

Muhammad Kharoff
Muhammad KharoffYossi Zeliger/Flash90

The two declared via social media their intentions to marry, police said – a claim Halimi’s husband and mother disputed.

But some of the victim’s relatives seemed to acknowledge the affair, and said that Kharoff murdered Halimi when she expressed her desire to go back to her husband.

According to Aharon Halimi’s ex-wife, Ravid Boyar, Michal Halimi and Kharoff had known each other before Halimi’s marriage, becoming acquainted as teenagers via social media.

While police initially suspected Kharoff had killed Halimi due to her desire to end their affair, later evidence pointed to terrorism as the motive.

During a court hearing in August, Kharoff denied that he had been involved romantically with Halimi, and claimed that he had attempted to kidnap her in a bid to win the release of jailed terrorists being held by Israel. After the hearing, he expressed his desire to murder more Jews. Saying he wanted “to kill all the Jews”.