Teen in Duma case convicted of being a member of a terrorist org.
The teenager had already signed a plea deal and admitted to multiple charges, but this charge was debated and placed before a court to make a final decision.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFA girl looks at the damage inside the house of Palestinian Dawabsheh family after it was torched in the village of Duma near Nablus, May 11, 2018(photo credit: ABED OMAR QUSINI/REUTERS)
A teenager suspected of carrying out a 2015 terrorist attack in the Palestinian town of Duma was convicted of being a member of a terrorist organization on Thursday.The teenager had already signed a plea deal, having admitted to multiple charges. The suspect originally refused to plead guilty to membership in the Jewish terrorist group known as Hamered (The Revolt), so that specific charge was placed before a court to make a final decision.In July 2015, the Palestinian Dawabshe family in Duma, including 18-month-old Ali Dawabshe, was burned to death in a terrorist arson attack that included spray-painted anti-Palestinian messages.Since he is a minor, the teenager will be sent for a supplementary test review when a court will make a final decision whether or not to convict him for the charges he admitted to."The crimes were committed against Arab property that was randomly selected with no personal connection," ruled the judge, adding however that the act itself was planned and not random. "The crimes that the charged [suspect] admitted to had an ideological and racist motive.""A boy like this is not a human: He's a person that committed terror," said Husain Dawabshe, Ali's grandfather. "A person like this that is going to burn people, mosques and a house and uproot olive trees is not difficult just for us. A person like this should be in prison their whole life; he has no heart.""The court received our position and ruled that the charged [suspect] was involved in planning the Duma attack in which the Dawabshe family was murdered, and for committing additional security crimes with ideological and racist motives," said the attorneys for the prosecution. "He was a member of a terrorist organization."Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.
