A military court today sentenced two Jewish youths to death and committed another to an asylum as insane for firing on an Arab bus between Safed and Rosh Pina, and for possession of arms, on April 20. The sentences are subject to confirmation by Major-General Robert H. Haining, commander of British forces in Palestine.
Abraham Shein, 20 years old, and Shlomo Ben Joseph, 22, were sentenced to be hanged. Sholom Sorabin, 18, was declared insane. The youths, who had been found hiding in the hills after the attack on the bus, were tried individually but simultaneously.
The prosecutor summarized for more than an hour, and the defence for five hours. After sentence had been passed, Philip Joseph, a defense lawyer, fervently appealed to the court to consider the ages of the defendants and the circumstances of the crime. He emphasized the “inhuman sufferings” through which the Palestine Jewish community had gone and also its self-restraint through the past two years of Arab disorders.
Although no one was hurt as result of the shooting, the military court meted out the death sentences under the emergency regulations promulgated last November authorizing capital punishment for possession of arms, sabotage and violence.
If the death sentences are executed, the two youths will be the first Jews to die for violation of the emergency regulations. A Jewish constable was sentenced to death last February for firing on an Arab truck and killing a child, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
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