Hasno, Hy”d, and his grandson; Photo credit: Courtesy of the family
Monday, July 6, 2020, 10:41 The Military Court in Yehuda sentenced to life imprisonment, Sahban al-Titi, the terrorist who murdered Avraham Hasno, Hy”d, in October 2015. During the deliberation members of Hasno’s family shouted at the terrorist and his family, and were brutally removed from the courtroom by Prison Service personnel. Hasno’s widow, Ruthi, fainted during the disturbance in the courtroom and was treated at the scene.
Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher, who is representing the family as victims of terror, responded to the verdict: “A life sentence is the minimum. The time has come for terrorists not to live among us.”
On October 20, 2015, Avraham Hasno, Hy”d, was attacked with a barrage of rocks near the al-Fawwar Junction in the area of Hevron. When he exited his car to examine the damage and attempt to chase away the attackers, he was run over by a truck driven by Sahban al-Titi, who fled the scene. Al-Titi was initially charged only with manslaughter. After a determined protest by the Hasno family, the Military Court in Yehuda convicted the terrorist of intentionally causing death, the equivalent in a military court to murder.
On the day prior to the reading of the verdict, Avraham’s daughter, Leah, wrote a personal letter about how the family has been handling their loss: “What does one feel when the earth falls out from under one’s feet, when one’s family collapses into fragments of pain, of uncertainty.”
Leah described how her mother, Ruthi Hasno, has been forced to cope as a widow with seven children and thirteen grandchildren and added: “The pain still shatters my heart when I see my son [Pe’er Avraham Hasno] asleep with a photograph of his grandfather, four and half years later. His entire way and being were love and kindness. We haven’t started to hate; that destroys one’s soul. No hate will fill our hearts.”
With regard to the verdict Leah wrote: “If they hand down a verdict that is not the death penalty, we will appeal and we will not be silent until we know that [the murderer] will pay for the hate and evilness in his heart.”
Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher, who is representing the family as victims of terror, added: “The terrorist took advantage of an opportunity to murder a Jew. We ask the court to penalize terrorists with the most stringent penalty possible in order to prevent a situation in which every Jew turns into a potential target for an incidental murder. A terrorist such as this deserves the death penalty or at least a life sentence without the possibility for parole.”