Pliner's murderer gets 18 year sentence

T. convicted of murder, robbery after breaking in to Anat Pliner's home, demanding money and stabbing her. 'Courts gave murder seal of approval,' says Pliner's mother

Reuters | Published: 07.26.11, 14:11

The Tel Aviv Distroct Court on Tuesday sentenced T., who was convicted of the 2006 murder of Attorney Anat Pliner, to 18 years in prison. T. was 15 at the time of the murder and so as a minor his name remains undisclosed. He was convicted of murder in November 2010, four and a half years after the act. In addition he will be required to pay compensation of NIS 200,000 ($59,000) to Pliner's family.

The indictment details how T. decided to break into a Ramat HaSharon home. At around 9pm, he left his house equipped with black gloves and a commando knife, both belonging to his father. He knocked on the door of Pliner's home, identified himself as a "neighbor" and when she opened the door told her "get out all your money".

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Pliner who was at home with her two children called out for help and in response, T. took out his knife and stabbed her twice in the stomach. Afterwards he threw the knife's sheath to the floor and fled. During his escape he threw the knife and gloves into a garbage can in a nearby street. Pliner collapsed in front of her children as her son called the police. She later died of her wounds.

The murder scene in Hod HaSharon (Photo: Yaron Brener)

The case remained a mystery for two years, as the knife sheath was all the police had to go on. Only after his arrest in connection with the theft of a motor scooter did the police connect T. with the murder using DNA samples. T. confessed to the murder and even reconstructed the events.

T. was convicted of murder while committing murder perpetrated during the commission of a robbery to which aggravated circumstances apply, but he denied planning the murder in advance and claimed that he was mentally retarded, suffering from mental disorders and incapable of distinguishing between good and evil.

'No justice'

After presenting the evidence as well as a psychiatric evaluation on behalf of the defendant, the presiding judge Shaul Shohat determined that "the defendant was not mentally impaired and failed to fulfill the first condition required in order to limit criminal liability."

Nonetheless, in the ruling Tuesday the judges agreed that T. should not be given a life sentence as sought by the prosecution due to his mental problems and the fact that he expressed regret over his actions. The judges were however divided over the length of the prison sentence: Judge Sara Dotan seeking 24 years while Shohat and Judith Shitzer set his sentence at 18 years.

Anat's mother Tehiya Aharoni collapsed after hearing the sentence saying: "We expected at least a life sentence. Today the courts gave minors a seal of approval to carry out murder," she explained. "This is a country with no justice…those who pay enough for a lawyer are released of all blame. If that judge's daughter was murdered he would have acted differently."

Attorney Dafna Vahnish from the Tel Aviv Prosecutor's Office admitted that "this is a disappointment; I believe that the message should have been a different one. This sentence is insufficient, even when dealing with a minor. The message should have been clear, especially with the recent rising wave of violence. The court should have enforced a harsher punishment."

Meanwhile the defendant's attorneys Moshe Maroz and Shira Maroz and expressed their satisfaction with the sentence: "The court needed to give a sentence and balance between the awful pain and the special circumstances in the case. The boy suffered from personal and mental problems and carried out the act unknowingly in a sudden outburst."

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