The State Prosecutor's Office intends to appeal the decision to release the two Arabs who were convicted of transporting the terrorists who carried out the attack at the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem’s Old City, during which border policewoman Hadas Malka was murdered, Channel 2 reported.
Two weeks ago, when the decision was made, the family of the murdered woman was not updated.
The Malka family sent an angry letter to the State Prosecutor's Office and the prison service stating that "the deduction by one-third [of the sentence] for the scoundrels who aided the damned terrorists is another stage in our mental death."
Attorney Haim Bleicher, the lawyer for the family from the Honenun legal organization, said: "This is a war on terror. Any relief from punishment conveys a lenient attitude toward terrorism."
The two drivers had been arrested and convicted according to their admission of causing death by negligence. One of them, a Palestinian Arab who was sentenced to 16 months in prison, had his sentence shortened by a third and was released from prison. The second, an Israeli Arab who was sentenced to 14 months in prison, was informed that the parole board had decided to shorten his sentence by a third as well, and release him immediately.
The State Prosecutor's Office objected to the move and requested that the release be delayed in order to appeal it to the court. Sources at the Israel Prison Service wondered how it was decided to shorten the sentences of the two, defined as security prisoners, in a precedent-setting manner. They also wondered why, contrary to common practice, the position of the victim's family was not sought out.