Brother of Barkan terrorist sentenced

Wednesday, August 7, 2019, 15:07 On Wednesday, August 7, Judge Major Rinat Levi Moskowitz of the Military Court in Salem handed down a sentence of one year of active prison service and a suspended sentence of an additional year to the brother of the Barkan terrorist. He was convicted of failure to prevent possession of a weapon by his brother and of disrupting legal proceedings.
During the deliberation a disturbance developed during a heated argument between Kim Levengrond-Yehezkel’s family and the terrorist’s attorneys. An attorney who represents terrorists who was present at the deliberation cursed the family, resulting in his removal from the courtroom. He returned and spit in the direction of the family.
Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher, who is representing the families of the Barkan terror victims, Ziv Hajbi, Hy”d, and Kim Levengrond-Yehezkel, Hy”d, and assisting them with realizing their rights, stated that, “[The defendant] is the brother of a murderous terrorist who lived in the same house with him. He knew that he possessed a weapon and knew that the terrorist had warned that the IDF might search the house. Furthermore, after the attack the defendant attempted to remove the video clips [from the home’s security cameras] so that the terrorist and his accomplices would not be apprehended and would continue to pose a danger and a threat.
“The defendant is not innocent, not at all. The law in Yehuda and Shomron stipulates that if there is a reasonable suspicion then there is an obligation to report it to the IDF and if a report is not made, that is a failure to prevent an attack. Any reasonable person understands that there was a reasonable suspicion here, if not more than that. Penalizing those who sustain the environment of terror and creating a deterrence factor are necessary to halt the attacks. Unfortunately the court failed to do so here. We will demand that the prosecution appeal the verdict and act to rectify the distortion.”
The bill of indictment describes how the mother of the terrorist told her other son about his intents and despite that, “the defendant did not inform any authorities whatsoever and did not act in another reasonable manner to prevent his brother from committing the crime.
“Additionally, after the murder… the defendant [the terrorist’s brother] phoned his wife and asked her to dismantle the recording device. Afterwards he spoke to [name redacted] and asked him to take the recording device from his wife, because there was a concern that the security forces would impound the device and see his brother Asraf [the terrorist] holding the weapon in his house and in his presence.”