E. J'lem woman suspected of trying to slit throat of cancer-stricken son

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
A 5-year-old boy suffering from cancer was in serious condition at a Jerusalem hospital after his mother allegedly tried to slit his throat, police said Friday. The boy's mother, a resident of east Jerusalem who had fled to the nearby West Bank city of Jericho after the Thursday afternoon attempt on her son's life, was arrested on her return to Jerusalem later in the day, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said. The 30-year-old woman, who is believed to mentally disturbed, told police that she had planned the attack in advance in order to put her son, who is the terminal stage of the disease, "out of his misery," Ben-Ruby said. She was sent to a Jerusalem mental health institution for a psychiatric evaluation on Thursday night in order to determine if she is fit to stand trial.