Two accomplices to a 2017 terror attack in which a border policewoman was murdered have been released on parole after their sentences were reduced by a third. This is an unusual step, and part of a new trend in which security prisoners are being released by a parole board.

Muhammad Hamdan and Hani Dari were accomplices to the terrorists who murdered border policewoman Hadas Malka HY”D, in a terror attack near Shar Shechemin the Old City of Jerusalem on June 16, 2017. They were convicted in the framework of a plea bargain of causing death by negligence and illegally transporting persons from PA controlled territory to Israel.

Jerusalem Magistrate Court Judge Shmuel Herbst handed down prison sentences of 14 and 16 months imprisonment, suspended sentences, and imposed monetary compensations.

Hamdan, a resident of PA controlled territory, was released several months ago. Malka’s family was not informed of the release and her family was not contacted to give their opinion about the parole, as in customary in such cases. The family did not find out about the Hamdan’s release until Monday, September 17, when the family was asked to give their opinion about the early release of Dari, the other accomplice convicted in the case, to the parole board, which met that day to consider his release.

In the deliberation which took place regarding the decision, the Attorney General’s office objected to the parole, however Judge Zohar Dolev Lehman accepted the opinion of the prisoner and ordered his release. There is a stay of execution on the decision and the Attorney General’s office is considering appealing the parole.

Hadas Malka’s family – her parents, David and Geula, and siblings, Tamir, Guy, Shaked, Neta and Gefen – wrote an emotional letter to the court asking them not to order the release of the prisoner. Excerpts from the letter: “In the name of Hadas and in the name of all victims of terror, and before Yom Kippur, we beseech you to show understanding and to honor the memory of Hadas, and to not allow, and certainly not to approve the request by the accomplices to terror reduce their penalty, and thereby to empathize with us, to consider our feelings and to respect and honor the values and self-sacrifice of our daughter, Hadas.

“We ask that you honor her friends in combat units who work day and night for the security of the State, and that you honor all bereaved families. The feeling that accompanies us every day is one of a insane reality. We implore you – especially those who act in the name of and for the State in order to facilitate normal life as much as possible – do not cause us to feel that also basic justice is not sane. Release on parole, of miscreants who abetted the heinous terrorist, will be another stage of our emotional death.” As stated above, the request was not accepted and at the end of the deliberation Judge Zohar Dolev ordered the release of the accomplice to terror.

Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher, who is assisting Malka’s family, stated that, “When the war on terror is the matter at hand the secondary and tertiary accomplices must also pay the price. Every leniency in setting a penalty sends a message of treating terror lightly. This worrisome trend of releasing security prisoners on parole must be stopped.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)