The Jerusalem District Court convicted Yaakov (Jack) Teitel of two counts of murder and three attempted murders. The ruling upholds a plea bargain between the defendant and the State Attorney's Office.
Teitel's victims were Arabs and his motivation nationalistic. He is one of a very small group of Jews convicted of terrorism against Arabs, in a country where thousands of Arabs commit terror acts against Jews annually.
The three judges, Tzvi Segal, Moshe Drori and Moshe Yo'ad Hacohen, decided unanimously that Teitel's mental condition was irrelevant to the acts and that he was responsible for his actions.
The judges determined that Teitel enjoyed violence, and that he also had been cruel to animals.
"These ideological and personality-related systems, combined with the precise planning and high sophistication that the defendant exhibited, in conjunction with the defendant's lack of a psychiatric history, show, at the required level of probability, that he committed the deeds ascribed to him out of full consciousness, and willingly chose their results."
About one year ago, Teitel's attorneys signed a plea bargain with the State Attorney's Office. The District Court approved the deal and determined that Teitel did, indeed, commit the crimes he was accused of.