An Israeli military court sentenced five Palestinians to 15 years in jail for killing Adele Biton, a 4-year-old Jewish girl.
The five young men, who were minors aged 16-17 at the time of the incident three years ago, were not convicted of premeditated murder because of their young age when they threw stones at the car carrying Biton, causing a collision, Army Radio reported after the sentencing Thursday night.
Instead, the military prosecution indicted the five killers from the West Bank village of Hares with manslaughter. They were identified as Muhammad Mahdi Suleiman, Tamer Ayyad Ahmad Souf, Ammar Abd al-Nayif Souf, Ali Yassin Ali Shamlawi and Muhammad Jumaa Muhammad Kleib.
Biton, the daughter of two Israeli settlers living in the West Bank, was severely injured in March 2013 and died of complications related to her injury in February last year, at the age of 4.
The Yesha Council, which represents Israeli settlers living in the West Bank, cited Biton’s case as an example of the danger of stone throwing, which the council’s leaders said was not being dealt with strongly enough by authorities.
The military court also ordered Biton’s killers to pay several thousand dollars in damages to the Biton family.
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