No prison sentence for ex-soldier in Karp murder case

A week after three sentenced to 26 years, Or Levy and three youths get six months of community service.

By JOANNA PARASZCZUK
Karp 311 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Karp 311
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Just a week after judges sentenced three Jaljulya youths convicted of brutally killing Arik Karp to 26 years’ imprisonment, Judge Mordechai Peled of the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court ruled Wednesday that four people convicted of failing to prevent the attack, including former IDF soldier Or Levy, will not serve time in prison.
Instead, all four were ordered to serve to six months’ community service.
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Levy and three youths – Fadi Jaber, Fuad Mussa and Mahmoud Ades, all from Jaljulya – were convicted in March of failing to prevent the killing, standing by and not calling for help, or for police, as the victim was repeatedly attacked. Karp was brutally beaten and kicked to death two years ago on the Tel Baruch Beach in northern Tel Aviv by a gang of intoxicated assailants.
Levy had originally denied the charges against her and attempted to distance herself from the main culprits, but later confessed to failing to prevent a crime.
According to the charge sheet, the group from Jaljulya, along with Or Levy, met up at Tel Baruch beach on the night of the killing, where they drank alcohol. Karp, together with his wife, Sara, and his daughter, Anataliya, arrived at the beach at about the same time and sat down on a bench. Shortly afterward, three of the Jaljulya men beat Karp to death, while the rest of the group, including Levy, looked on.
Last week, the three men – including a minor – convicted of killing Karp were sentenced to 26 years in prison and ordered to pay Karp’s family NIS 100,000 in compensation.
The judge ruled that the three convicted killers were guilty of a “brutal, unprovoked and horrifying” crime.
In sentencing Levy and the three Jaljulya men Wednesday, Judge Peled wrote that the four defendants only had a very short time in which to prevent the crime they witnessed.
“However, I can only note that even within a short time, it was the responsibility of the defendants to take all reasonable measures to prevent the continuation of the brutal and deadly beatings,” Peled noted.
The judge also pointed out that the fact that the four defendants were under the influence of alcohol was not a reason for them to fail to stop the deadly attack on Karp.
“They stood idly by,” wrote Peled.
“For them to stand on the sidelines, under these extreme circumstances, without doing anything to prevent the terrible events taking place before their eyes, without even calling for help – even after the event, when they continued having fun with the others as if nothing had happened, is outrageous behavior that cannot be tolerated.”
However, despite the judge’s harsh words to the four defendants, Peled ruled that the six-month sentence he was handing down to them would be served as community service rather than jail time.
Professor Eyal Gross, a criminal law expert from Haifa University, described the sentence as “disproportional, unfair and too light a punishment” and told The Jerusalem Post that the state prosecutor should appeal the verdict.
“Community service is not the right punishment in this case,” said Gross. “The court ruled that the four could have prevented Karp’s killing but decided not to do so. The sentence should have given a clear message to the public that if you are in a position to try to save someone’s life – even by calling the police – then you must act.
“The circumstances of Karp’s death were so terrible that community service is not the response that the police or society were seeking.”

Yaakov Lappin and Jerusalem Post staff contributed to this report.