Israeli court convicts two in 2014 murder of Palestinian teen

An Israeli court on Monday convicted two Jewish minors in the 2014 murder of a Palestinian youth but postponed the verdict of the ringleader due to a last-minute insanity plea.

The Jerusalem District Court found the trio guilty of the murder of 16-year-old Muhammad Abu Khdeir, who was burned alive in July 2014, as a "revenge" for an earlier murder of three Israeli teens.

On Thursday, after a trial that lasted for more than a year, Yosef Haim Ben-David, a 30-year-old settler, submitted through his attorney a psychiatric evaluation suggesting he was not responsible for his acts at the time of the murder.

The judges found him guilty of the killing but suspended his conviction in six weeks to discuss his new psychiatric report.

Before dawn on July 2, 2014, the suspects kidnapped Abu Khdeir near his home in Shuafat, a Palestinian neighborhood of Jerusalem, while he was on his way to say his morning prayers at the local mosque.

They took him to the Jerusalem forest, where they hit him, strangled him and then burned him alive.

The killing shook the country and triggered violent protests in Jerusalem and about half a dozen other Arab cities throughout Israel.

Abu Khdeir's father, Hussein Abu Khdeir, told reporters outside the court that he fears the court will acquit Ben-David due to insanity.

"I'm afraid that other Ben-Davids will follow a similar path should the court fail to hand a deterrent punishment," he said. "If this murderer was an Arab, Israel would already be demolishing his home."

The verdict came amid a two-month wave of deadly violence in the West Bank and Israel, including almost daily stabbing attacks by Palestinians.

The verdict is expected to stir further anger among Palestinians, who say the recent unrest was the result of frustration over almost 50 years of Israeli occupation of their lands. Endit