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Jerusalem: Israel's supreme court on Thursday rejected an appeal by three members of a Jewish gang convicted of kidnapping, beating and burning alive a Palestinian teenager in 2014.
The decision upholds life sentences for two of them and a 21-year jail term for the third over the chilling attack that was part of a spiral of violence ahead of the 2014 Gaza war. Israeli settler Yosef Haim Ben-David was convicted of leading the assault on Mohammed Abu Khdeir, 16, that shocked Israelis and Palestinians alike.
The two others have not been named since they were minors 16 at the time of the crime. Ben-David, whose claim of insanity was rejected, was 31 when he was sentenced to life in May 2016. Ben-David had previously claimed to be the"messiah,"but judges ruled that he was mentally competent. They said that at the time of the killing he was"in full command of his faculties ... and that the mental issues he suffered from"did not mean he was not responsible for his actions, according to a justice ministry statement on the ruling. (AFP)
