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by Our Foreign Desk
TWO unnamed Israeli youths were found guilty yesterday of the grisly murder of Palestinian teen Mohammed Abu Khdeir and will be sentenced in mid-January.
The court, however, delayed its verdict for the third and chief suspect in the July 14 2014 killing due to a last-minute insanity plea, sparking fears of political interference.
Mohammed was kidnapped from a street in occupied east Jerusalem. He was bundled into a car, beaten unconscious and then burned alive.
The postponement of the verdict for suspected ringleader Yosef Haim Ben David infuriated many Palestinians.
They suspect that the authorities will accept his insanity plea but find him mainly responsible for the crime, leading to his younger accomplices being treated leniently.
Judge Jacob Zaban found that Mr Ben David had driven the car while the two youths beat 16-year-old Mohammed unconscious in the back seat.
Once they reached a forest, one accomplice helped him to douse the Palestinian boy with petrol and then the older man set their victim alight.
Mohammed’s father Hussein Abu Khdeir denounced the proceedings as “a lie,” saying: “I am afraid that the court will release them in the end.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s aide Ahmad Rwaidi said it was “unprecedented” for a court to accept the insanity plea on the day of the verdict, rather than during a subsequent appeal.
Judge Zaban said that the late timing was “against regular and appropriate protocol,” but the court would examine it and issue a verdict later in December.