The Samaria Military Court today sentenced the mother of the Barkan murderer to 18 months in prison, paying a fine of NIS 5,000, as well as paying compensation to the families of the murdered in the amount of NIS 40,000.
The mother was convicted of failing to prevent the attack in the Barkan industrial zone where Kim Levengrond and Ziv Hajbi were murdered, despite knowing her son's intentions.
At the hearing, the president of the military court said it was of great importance for family members to report relatives' intentions to carry out attacks. "The defendant genuinely and subjectively suspected her son would carry out an attack, and did not act as required by law to prevent the planned attack."
In the conviction itself, the judge wrote "the value of human life in such a case overrides family ties."
Advocate Chaim Bleicher of the Honeinu legal aid organization accompanying the families said: "The sentence misses what the appeals court held in the trial of the terrorist's brother, that the punishment must be stringent. The brother of the terrorist who was convicted of a much lesser offense than the 'non-prevention of a terror attack' offense was given a two-year prison sentence on appeal. We will ask the military prosecution to appeal the penalty, and ask to double and triple the punishment."
In the conviction hearing on the failure to prevent the attack, the Military Court judge quoted Prof. Karminzer's article: "In a reality where suicide terrorism is not a rare sight, it is difficult to assume that the law was ready to relieve of criminal liability a person (including a relative) who suspected a plot to commit a suicide bombing; one who avoided checking out the suspicion and also avoided reporting it."
The judge explained, "It is not satisfactory in my view to issue a weak utterance and external act that cannot prevent the planned offense. An act with real potential to prevent the offense is required, and this act must be external to the offense's planner, which means that it is not enough to persuade the intended perpetrator to cease his acts, or to warn him."
At the end of her decision, the judge wrote: "The actions of the defendant who warned her son and reported to the father had no real power to prevent anyone determined to lose his life while harming Israel and holding a weapon to carry out his plot. Moreover, the defendant did not ask the father to take his son's weapon or report. She did not act reasonably to prevent the execution of her son's plot, and should therefore be convicted of the offense attributed to her."
The mother of the Barkan murderer was accused of knowing her son's intentions to carry out an attack but did not stop him. The mother heard her son shooting near their home, and he later told her that he was sick of his life and intended to become a martyr. The murderer warned his mother that as a result of his actions, the army might search their home, and the mother updated her husband. The mother also tried to warn her son, but gave no notice to any authority and did not act reasonably to prevent the murder. Today she was convicted of failure to prevent an offense.