The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court allowed publication of a sentence imposed on a 14-year-old Arab resident of East Jerusalem accused of attempting to attack a policeman and riot.
According to the indictment, the Arab took part in riots that included stone-throwing and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Issawiya several times when he was 13 years old.
The court determined that because of the severity of the offenses, and despite the defendant's young age, he would be fined NIS 20,000 and receive a suspended jail sentence.The case was handled by the Jerusalem District Attorney's Office.
Justice Shimon Leibo held that despite the seriousness of the incident which occurred within the context of a relatively high number of such incidents, in the circumstances of the case, taking into account the defendant's young age at the time of the events, it is possible to refrain from imposing an active prison term.
The judge noted that "the correct balance in the present case is in the form of convicting the defendant, serving a suspended sentence at a relatively high threshold, and imposing a particularly high financial fine on the defendant, a fine which will be accompanied by imprisonment should it not be paid, which is a clear message to other cases."
Therefore, the court decided to convict the Arab youth and sentenced him to a six-month suspended sentence for the next three years, and a fine of 20,000 NIS or 200 days in prison instead.