Man who ran over terrorist gets community service
Jerusalem court takes David Mizrahi's personal tragedy into account, refrains from sending him to prison over 2009 attack on Palestinian terrorist who stabbed his wife near Kiryat Arba
The Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday sentenced 58-year-old David Mizrahi to three months community service for running over a terrorist who had stabbed his wife.
Mizrahi was convicted of aggravated assault as part of a plea bargain.
Related articles:
According to the verdict, in November 2009 Palestinian terrorist Waseem Maswada entered a "Yellow" convenience store located in a gas station store at the entrance to the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba and stabbed Tamar Mizrahi in the throat. He proceeded to flee the store and stab another person. The gas station's security guard shot the terrorist, and three IDF soldiers surrounded him as he lay wounded on the ground.
After being informed that his wife had been stabbed, David Mizrahi made his way to the gas station, drove past the soldiers and ran over the lower part of the terrorist's body.
Mizrahi was initially charged with attempted murder, but the charge was dropped in the framework of the plea bargain.
The State Prosecutor's Office asked the court to sentence Mizrahi to at least one year in prison, while the defendant's attorney, David Halevy, asked for leniency as his client lost two of his children.
One of Mizrahi's sons was killed in a car accident, while the other was killed by a bullet that was accidentally discharged.
During the trial Tamar Mizrahi also mentioned the family's personal tragedies, and described her husband as someone who did his best to get the family back on its feet.
In his dissenting opinion, Judge Zvi Segal wrote that David Mizrahi was in a state of "great distress" when he had heard of his wife's stabbing, adding that the court "felt the defendant's despair and sorrow."
However, Judge Segal wrote, Mizrahi's personal woes do not legitimize attacking another man, "even if he is a terrorist."
But judges Moshe Drori and Ben Zion Greenberger said Mizrahi's personal tragedies must be taken into account and that he should be sentenced to community service. "Sending the defendant to prison would hurt him terribly and even endanger him to some extent," Drori wrote in the majority opinion."
- Receive Ynetnews updates
directly to your desktop
