Minor in Jewish terror Duma attack gets 42 months in prison
In May 2019, the minor cut a plea bargain deal leading to a conviction on reduced charges
By YONAH JEREMY BOBAmiram Ben-Uliel appears at Lod District Court ahead of his conviction in the Duma arson case, May 18, 2020(photo credit: YONAH JEREMY BOB)
The Lod District Court on Thursday sentenced the minor connected with the 2015 Duma Jewish terror attack case to 42 months in jail. Since he previously served 32 months before being released, he only needs to return to prison for 10 months left to his prison sentence.The prosecution had sought a five-and-a-half-year jail sentence, but was mostly satisfied with a significant jail sentence.The defense had hoped that the extensive time the minor had spent in detention before the trial as well as the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) enhanced interrogation (alleged torture) he was exposed to would lead to him being sentenced merely to time served.Defense lawyers Zion Amir and Adi Keidar vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court, saying that the judges had been convinced by secret Shin Bet evidence which should be used only for convictions and not at the sentencing stage.The Lod court granted a stay of the prison sentence pending the anticipated appeal.A social worker had shown sympathy for the minor and supported a more lenient sentence.The main culprit, Amiram Ben-Uliel, convicted of three counts of murder and multiple counts of attempted murder, was sentenced on Monday to three life prison terms plus 20 additional years.In May 2019, the minor cut a plea bargain deal leading to a conviction on reduced charges.The minor was not merely spared from being convicted of murdering the Dawabshe family in the 2015 arson incident, but was not even convicted of conspiracy to commit murder.On the other hand, he did confess to a background narrative in which he clearly admits to participating in planning some kind of attack on Duma, including surveillance of that village specifically.In addition, for those who say that the minor did nothing but discuss an attack, he was convicted of other arson and “price-tag” attacks – even though they did not involve murder.Why the minor did not participate in the actual attack – having told Ben-Uliel that he would – has never been cleared up, though speculation is that he merely overslept the time he was due to meet Ben-Uliel.Once all of these points are more carefully delineated, it seems critical that the minor did participate in planning the Duma attacks – and essentially admitted to that in the background facts – but that there was insufficient evidence to prove a connection to a specific murder conspiracy.The court’s decision comes after weighing these issues as well as the fact that it disapproved of how the Shin Bet treated the minor, signaled by its disqualification of his confession to additional charges of conspiracy to commit murder.
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