The Central District Court in Lod, presided over by President Ruth Lorch and Judges Dvora Atar and Ami Kobo, today (Sunday) handed down prison sentences against the terrorists convicted of stone-throwing in Lod during Operation Guardian of the Walls.
The defendants were initially charged with aggravated murder for the killing of Yigal Yehoshua hy”d, after hurling stones at his vehicle. However, following the presentation of significant evidentiary difficulties during the trial, the sides reached a plea bargain in mediation.
Under the arrangement, the defendants admitted to and were convicted of aggravated intentional injury only, without being held directly responsible for Yehoshua’s death.
The court ruled that the attack was carried out with a nationalistic motive, in circumstances of a terror act, and therefore imposed prison terms of up to 14 years. In addition, the terrorists were ordered to pay more than NIS 900,000 in compensation to the victim’s family.
The judges emphasized the severity of the crimes, which took place at the height of Operation Guardian of the Walls, a time of violent riots and unrest across the country by Israeli Arabs. “The acts were committed from a nationalistic and racist motive, at a time when the entire country was burning from within and without,” the panel ruled.
The court also addressed Yehoshua’s family - his widow Irina, sons Michael and Amit, brother Ephraim, and his mother - describing them as a family of values that seeks equality and coexistence, as Yehoshua himself had done in his lifetime.