14 year sentence to Arab Israeli who planned attacks
Young Arab Israeli from Shfaram convicted of joining Islamic Jihad, planning terrorist attacks against Israeli pilots and scientists. 'Dominance displayed by defendant and creativity of his ideas leaves no doubt as to his determination and desire to carry out mission,' write judges
An Islamic Jihad cell plotting to assassinate Israeli pilots, scientists and university lecturers was exposed in a joint IDF, Shin Bet and police operation last August. According to the details revealed in the investigation, Anis Saffouri, 21, relocated to Ramallah in 2006 to study in Birzeit. Saffouri, already a member of the Sons of the Village movement, developed ties to activists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, as well as personal and professional ties to reporters linked to the Hizbullah-affiliated 'Al-Manar' network.
Saffouri suggested to the terrorist movement that he target Israeli scientists in the mathematics and physics fields by planting bombs under their cars using remote-control toys to place the devices. Saffouri also suggested detonating bombs in their houses. The convicted man also closely monitored an IDF checkpoint with plans to carry out an attack on the site.
Hussam Khalil, Saffouri's cousin, was marked by Saffouri as the man who could help transfer funds from Jordan to Israel to help finance the cell's operations. Khalil traveled to Ramallah to meet Saffouri and another activist, expressed his willingness to help transfer the funds and was officially recruited to the Islamic Jihad. Hussam confessed in his questioning that he was aware of Saffouri's intentions and understood that the money would be used for military operations.
The two Israeli men pleaded guilty in a plea bargain that stipulated that Saffouri's sentence would be somewhere between 9 to 15 years imprisonment. The panel of judges presiding over the hearing, Adv. Yosef Elron, Adv Rivka Lemelshtrich and Adv. Moshe Gilad, decided to honor the plea bargain.
"Unfortunately," noted the judges, "we are periodically turned to the activities of citizens of the State of Israel who are members of terrorist organizations and the worst enemies of the country, whose only goal is to sow destruction, ruin, and killing amongst its citizens… in this case, luckily, the malicious plans were not carried out, but the thought of what could have happened if only some of their plans had materialized is frightful."
The judges established that Saffouri intended on acting upon the plans he made: "The dominance displayed by the defendant and the 'creativity' of his various ideas, how and when to make the strike against citizens of the State of Israel and members of our security forces, leaves now doubt as to his determination and desire to carry out his mission, to which end he was a member of a terrorist organization."
The judges rejected the defense council's argument that the punishment was too harsh in comparison to the crime committed. "The reality in which we live that was manifested only a few days ago in an attempt to carry out a mass terrorist attack in a bustling mall shows that in actuality nothing has changed and that terrorist organizations continue to make attempts to carry out attacks that will bring harm to innocent people. From here, the deterrent and the punitive recompense necessitate a fitting and deterrent punishment," the judges wrote.
The judges ruled that Halili's part in the affair was much smaller, and he was convicted only of conspiring to aid an unauthorized organization.
