The Lod District Court sentenced Rahtib Abu Atza to 30 years in prison on Wednesday as part of a plea bargain agreement in the manslaughter of police officer Shlomi Asulin.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBHandcuffs arrest police crime illustrative 390(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
The Lod District Court sentenced Rahtib Abu Atza to 30 years in prison on Wednesday as part of a plea bargain agreement in the manslaughter of police officer Shlomi Asulin.This was the second time Atza has been sentenced over the same event.Asulin was physically attacked by Atza while trying to stop him from committing various crimes involving theft of property.When Atza was initially indicted, Asulin was seriously wounded and in a coma, but still alive.After the trial, in August 2007, Atza received an initial sentence of 20 years in prison for the crime of causing serious bodily injury and other crimes. But four years and seven months after the incident, during all of which Asulin lay in a “vegetative” state, Asulin died.As a result of the changed circumstances in Asulin’s condition, under Section 5 of the Law of Criminal Procedure permitting new indictments even post-sentencing in some circumstances, the state submitted a new indictment charging Atza with murder.The state noted that its decision to reduce the charges to manslaughter and a 30-year sentence were taken out of concern of putting Asulin’s family through a new trial and with their consent.Atza’s sentence, handed down by a three judge panel, will run 30 years from when he was first detained in 2007.
