Barkan terrorist abettor sentenced to active prison term

Sunday, November 17, 2019, 14:43 The Shomron Military Court sentenced Abdallah Fouad Mustafa Mahmoud to a 20-month active prison term, an 18-month suspended sentence and imposed a 3,000 NIS fine on him. Mahmoud abetted Ashraf Walid Suleiman Na’alwa as he fled the authorities after murdering Kim Levengrond-Yehezkel, Hy”d, and Ziv Hajbi, Hy”d, in the Barkan Industrial Park on October 7, 2018. The assistance included providing Na’alwa with shelter and disrupting legal proceedings.
Mahmoud encountered Na’alwa in a mosque in Shechem and suggested that he sleep in the mosque. At the time Mahmoud was not aware that Na’alwa was the Barkan terrorist. However, even after Mahmoud discovered the identity of his guest he continued to offer shelter. Mahmoud also allowed Na’alwa to use his cell phone, which had Internet access, and took a letter for the terrorist’s sister, who lives in Shechem, in a book.
Additionally, in order to prevent seizure by security forces of documentation of the terrorist’s presence in the mosque, Mahmoud asked someone to erase recordings from the mosque’s security cameras.
The Shomron Military Court Judge noted in the sentence that “The defendant abetted a fleeing murderer immediately after he carried out two despicable and cruel murders. It is impossible to ignore the fact that the assistance was not momentary and not limited to one instance. … The defendant knew that Na’alwa had murdered two Israelis and despite that did not find it correct to cease the assistance he was providing. He also knew that the murderer was armed, and therefore it was obvious that he still posed a danger.”
However, the judge noted that Mahmoud initially did not know that his guest was the Barkan terrorist and that his actions “were not the most serious degree of the crime of sheltering [a criminal].”
Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher: “The sentence shows a welcome trend of sentencing actual prison terms for any assistance given to an escaping murderer. The military courts must consistently increase the severity of penalties of terrorists and their abettors, and send a clear message that every accomplice to terror in any way must expect severe penalties.”