Shalom Sherki
Shalom SherkiFamily archive

The Jerusalem District Court sentenced Khaled Kutina today (Monday) to life plus 20 years in prison for the murder of Shalom Sherki in a terror attack in Jerusalem.

Kutina was convicted of murder and attempted murder. His indictment indicates that he acted out of nationalist motivations aiming to avenge the difficult lives, he claimed, of Shuafat refugee camp residents.

On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day 2015, Kutina drove his car on Highway 1 in Jerusalem northbound toward Pisgat Ze'ev, reaching Police National Headquarters, stopping at a red light. When the light changed he revved his engine, swerved from the left lane quickly toward the right path over the curb and hit the two young Jews standing at the bus stop. Sherki, a tour guide and the son of Rabbi Uri Sherki of Machon Meir, who made aliya from France, was killed in the attack, which left one other person, the young woman accompanyng Sherki, injured.

Immediately afterwards Kutina reversed his car and collided with a traffic pole. Jerusalem police and Border Police arrived at the scene and arrested him. Investigation of the attack was performed by Jerusalem police's Special Duties Squad in cooperation with the General Security Service.

A few months ago, scores of people attended the murderer's hearing in the Jerusalem District Court. The murderer tried arguing during the trial that he remembers nothing about the attack.