The Jerusalem District Court has convicted two Israeli youths in the grisly July 2014 killing of 16-year-old east Jerusalem teen Muhammad Abu Khdeir. But it withheld a decision on the main suspect, 31-year-old Yosef Haim Ben-David, due to a last-minute insanity plea. Last Thursday, Ben-David's lawyer claimed his client was unfit for trial and asked the court to withhold judgement on his complicity until a privately commissioned psychiatric evaluation was submitted and translated from English. The court agreed to his request, despite the suspect having undergone a previous psychiatric evaluation shortly after his arrest. The two convicted youths cannot be identified because of their ages. Abu Khdeir was kidnapped near his home in the Shuafat neighborhood of east Jerusalem on July 2, 2014, and then taken to a nearby forest and burned to death. His death sparked outrage among Arabs in Jerusalem, leading to extensive riots. The incident took place shortly after three Israeli teens were kidnapped and killed by Palestinian terrorists in Samaria. Their deaths led to a chain of events that culminated with another Israeli-Hamas conflagration, the 50-day-long Operation Protective Edge. Abu Khdeir's father, Hussein, denounced the withholding of a decision on Ben-David's verdict, telling Army Radio on Monday that the trial was "a lie."
2 convicted in Arab teen's killing, ruling withheld on main suspect
Last-minute insanity plea complicates proceedings, leaving court with no choice but to issue partial verdict • Gruesome killing of 16-year-old Shuafat resident Muhammad Abu Khdeir in July 2014 led to riots in the capital.
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