Ahdash, a Palestinian from Tzurif, raped, murdered 8-year-old Lipaz Kheimi and killed David Ben-Hamo.
By JPOST.COM STAFFkheimi lipaz, 224 88(photo credit: Channel 10)
The Jerusalem District Court on Wednesday sentenced Anwar Ahdush, a 37-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank village of Tzurif, to two life sentences and an additional 17 years in prison for the 2006 murder of two people from Beit Shemesh.
In May 2006, Ahdush murdered 8-year-old Lipaz Kheimi and 50-year-old David Ben-Hamo. According to the indictment, Ahdush planned the murders well in advance.
Ahdush, who had carried out renovations at Ben-Hamo's apartment, beat him in the head with an ax and wrapped him in a blanket before setting the house on fire. He later confessed to having killed him for selling drugs to Jewish and Arab youths.
According to the indictment, Ahdush had enticed Lipaz Kheimi with money and led her to a stairwell, where he raped her and then strangled her to death with her belt, one of her shoelaces, and a chord.
The Jerusalem District Court judges sentenced Ahdush to two life sentences for the murders and an additional 17 years for raping Lipaz and setting fire to David's body.
"In his despicable actions, the defendant ended the lives of a young flower that did not have the chance to experience life, and of an ill-fated man. They were both murdered in shocking circumstances," the judges wrote in the ruling.
Prosecutor Oshrat Shoham of the Jerusalem District Attorney's Office said she was "satisfied" with the decision, because "the court attributed severe gravity also to the rape and arson charges."
Commenting on claims made by families of the deceased that the their loved ones were murdered for being Jewish, the attorney said that she was "constantly in contact with the girl's family and never had any indication the crime was terror related."
Etgar Lefkovits contributed to this report.
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