Jerusalem’s District court convicted three Israeli Jews in the harrowing murder of Jerusalem teen Muhammad Abu Khdeir in July 2014.
The conviction of the ringleader, Yosef Haim Ben-David, was suspended due to what many Israeli legal analysts are calling a Hail Mary pass: minutes before the convictions were announced, Ben-David’s counsel demanded a psychiatric evaluation, claiming his client had been in an altered state of mind at the time of the murder and could not be held responsible. Two of the accused are minors, and following Israeli law their names have not been released.
Abu Khdeir, 16, was kidnapped in the early hours of July 2, 2014, beaten and burned alive. Following the conviction, his father, Hussein Abu Khdeir, expressed the hope Ben-David’s request would be denied.