Hadas Mizrahi; Photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
Wednesday, August 12, 2020, 11:17 On Monday August 10, a deliberation took place at the Military Court in Yehuda on the Ofer Military Base on the appeal filed by the Military Advocate General demanding an increase in severity of the penalty handed down to Ziad Awad. The terrorist murdered Police Commander Baruch Mizrachi, Hy”d”, as he was traveling with his family on Route 35 towards Kiryat Arba to celebrate the Passover Seder there in April 2014. The deliberation also concerned the appeal filed by the terrorist on the verdict and sentencing imposed on him. The court is expected to announce a decision at a later time.
Awad was convicted, sentenced to life imprisonment, and ordered to pay the family monetary compensation. In the appeal, the prosecution demanded that the sum of compensation he is obligated to pay the family be increased. During the course of the deliberations Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher, who is representing Hadas Mizrahi, Baruch’s widow, and her family as victims of terror, submitted a calculation of damages totaling ten million NIS.
Before the deliberation, Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher stated, “The terrorist was released in the Shalit Deal and received a second opportunity to carry out his murderous plots. Being as the current policy is not to hand down death sentences, despite a clear need to do so, we are demanding that at least the penalty be tightened in other ways, for example imposing a higher sum of compensation for the victims of terror who were awarded a low sum by the first court.”
During the deliberation Hadas Mizrahi mentioned that four of her five children were present at the attack, and still feel its effects: “It [the attack] simply lives with them and will be with them until the end. The attack was horrific. Until this day I remember the screams, all of the children screaming. We don’t have a life. Everything is gone. We had been a normative family.”
The relative of another child who was injured in the attack spoke. In his opinion, life imprisonment for the terrorist is an appropriate penalty: “As far as we are concerned, every bullet that was fired in the attack should be a life sentence. The child is incapable of leaving the house and is afraid of mosques. His injury is emotional and physical.”