Two Shuafat men sentenced for killing US citizen in 2006

The men confessed in a plea bargain to killing US Consulate employee, 54, in the process of stealing his car.

By RON FRIEDMAN
Tel Aviv skyline 521 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Tel Aviv skyline 521
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
The Tel Aviv District Court sentenced two Shuafat men to 19 and 20 years in prison for the 2006 killing of an American citizen in Tel Aviv.
The men, Mustafa Awad and Issa Sarchan, confessed in a plea bargain to killing the man, a 54-year-old employee of the US Consulate identified only as KM, in the process of stealing his car, and were convicted of manslaughter in November.
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According to the ruling, the two entered KM’s car on the night of July 27, 2006 for unknown reasons, near the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station. Shortly afterward they exited the car and exchanged words with the man, after which they pushed him to the ground and began beating and kicking him all over his body. The beating caused KM severe brain damage and led to his death.
The men later took the car to Bethlehem, where they left it to be sold for parts.
They were arrested in August when the police found Awad residing in Israel under a fake name, using someone else’s residence permit.
The panel of judges, led by Sara Dotan, ruled that the men were guilty of manslaughter despite the fact that the crime was not premeditated and even though it was not established that the man was dead when the two left the scene of the beating.
“Even if the deceased was dying when the accused left the spot, and had yet to perish, it would not be enough to ease their punishment – since they, with their own hands and with bestial violence, sentenced him, a man who could be the same age as their fathers, to hours of anguish,” said Dotan.
Both men were also ordered to compensate the victim’s family with NIS 60,000 each.