Karp killers sentenced to 26 years in prison

3 youths given maximum prison term; Judges: The crime "deserves particularly harsh punishment"; Karp's widow Sara vows to appeal.

By JOANNA PARASZCZUK
Karp 311 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Karp 311
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Two years after they savagely beat and kicked him before chasing him into the water at Tel Baruch beach, the killers of Arik Karp were each sentenced Tuesday to 26 years in prison by the Tel Aviv District Court.
The court also ordered the three to pay compensation totaling NIS 100,000 to Karp’s widow, Sara.
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The three, Jamil Ades, 25, Abdel Rahman Ades, 21 and an unnamed minor, 17 – all from Jaljulya – were found guilty of killing Karp on Tel Baruch Beach in north Tel Aviv in 2009.
The three youths, who were under the influence of alcohol, attacked Karp, his wife Sara and their daughter without provocation. They later chased Karp into the water, all the time beating and kicking him savagely as he begged for mercy. Karp’s body was later washed up on the beach.
However, in a controversial ruling, the court acquitted the three young men of murder and instead convicted them of the lesser charge of manslaughter and aggravated assault. In the court’s ruling, the judges said that the prosecution had failed to prove that the attack had been premeditated.
In sentencing the three men to 26 years imprisonment, the judges said their attack on Karp had been brutal, unprovoked and horrifying.
“The victim was chosen at random. His only sin was that he met the rampaging gang on that night. The very possibility that someone could go innocently to the beach, which should be a safe place, and be brutally attacked and beaten to death, is intolerable and unacceptable,” the judges wrote.
“This case is horrifying not just because the victim was random. It is made even worse because of the inconceivable brutality and fury with which the accused men attacked [Karp], without any reason, when not a single one of them knew why they were hurting him.” The judges further wrote that the three youths had not stopped beating Karp even when he, his wife and daughter had begged them for mercy, and expressed horror at the thought of Karp’s final moments.
“The heart shudders at the thought of the distress, the despair, the agony and the fear that the victim must have felt before he died,” they wrote.
The judges also pointed out that each of the three youths could have decided to stop their part in the violence, but each chose not to.
Minutes after the judges passed sentence, family members of the three defendants began rioting outside the courtroom, attacking each other, punching walls and shouting at court officials and reporters.
Lawyers for the three defendants unanimously slammed the court’s ruling, criticizing the sentence as an unusually harsh punishment for a manslaughter conviction.
Attorney Gil Friedman, defending Adbel Rahman Ades, hinted that the judges’ ruling might have been less harsh had the three defendants “not been Arabs from Jaljulya.”
“This is not a punishment that is normally given for manslaughter,” Friedman said. “We will certainly appeal to the Supreme Court and I believe the Supreme Court will amend the sentence.”
Attorney Moshe Maroz, defending Jamil Ades, said the judges had sentenced the defendants as if they had been convicted of murder, not manslaughter.
“It was an extremely tragic event, but the court did not have enough courage to take all of the circumstances into account,” Maroz said.
However, the prosecution said the court’s ruling was correct. “This will send a clear message to anyone who thinks about using violence,” said state attorney Menachem Mizrahi.
Karp’s widow Sara told reporters that she is very unhappy with the court’s verdict of manslaughter and not murder.
“It was murder. Murder in cold blood,” Sara Karp said.
“What happened that night was not manslaughter. They came to murder, not to party on the Tel Baruch beach.
They murdered a man in front of his wife and daughter and they threw his body into the sea.”
The Karp family said they intend to appeal the court’s verdict in the Supreme Court in the hope that the three youths will be convicted of murder. The mandatory sentence for murder is life imprisonment.