Terrorist gets 2 life sentences for murder of Rabbi Miki Mark
Mohammed al-Amairah, who was involved in the attack that claimed the life of Mark and left his wife and two of his children wounded, was also ordered to pay family NIS 250,000 in compensation for his role in the deadly shooting.
Mohammed al-Amairah, who was involved in the terror attack that claimed the life of Rabbi Michael "Miki" Mark, was sentenced on Wednesday to two life terms in prison and ordered to pay NIS 250,000 in compensation to the victim's family.
Mark, 48, was murdered in a shooting attack in the southern Mount Hebron area of the West Bank in July 2016. His wife and two of his children were wounded in the attack.
The family's car came under fire while traveling on Route 60 near Beit Hagai, south of Hebron. Mark's wife, Hava, was seriously wounded, their 15-year-old son Pedaya was lightly wounded, while 13-year-old daughter Tehila was moderate-to-seriously wounded.
Al-Amairah, who was arrested two weeks after the murder, was convicted of premeditated murder and several counts of attempted murder both for the attack on the Mark family and for three other attempted attacks.
His accomplice, Mohammed Fakih, was killed on July 26 after a firefight with IDF troops that arrived at his home to arrest him.
Several of Fakih's relatives were also arrested, including his brother, Sahib, who confessed in his interrogation to aiding his brother hide, as well as helping him hide the weapons he had.
The terrorist's cousin, Muaz Fakih, also confessed to helping find a place for his cousin to stay in the days that followed the attack.
"Eight months have passed since our father's murder by vile people," the Mark family said in a statement. "The heinous murderer who was sentenced today does not interest us and the trial was not part of our painful daily lives. These days, we're busy strengthening the family, embracing one another and, along with our mother who has not yet recovered from her serious injury, we're working to rebuild our lives."
"There are those who kill and those who build. We learned from our father that we must always continue growing strong by building one flood atop the other," the family added.
In a letter to the judges, one of Mark's sons, Shlomi, said that while the family doesn't care about the terrorist himself, "what is important to us is that he can't go back to hurting other people... he and his accomplice were imprisoned before, released in the Shalit deal, and resumed their terror activity. Don't let them do that again."
The family urged Israel's leadership not to release any more terrorists in any deal. "It has been proven that even a terrorist without 'blood on his hands' who gets released returns to the cycle of terrorism and becomes a terrorist with 'blood on his hands.' We ask the leaders of the country not to cave in to pressure from within or without to release terrorists and call on those who supported the (Shalit) deal to visit the graves of those murdered by these released terrorists and ask for their forgiveness," the family said.
(Translated and edited by Yaara Shalom)
