An Israeli military prosecutor has asked a military appeals court to overturn the death sentence of a Palestinian convicted of plotting a fatal bus bombing in April.
The prosecutor, Moshe Bachar, told a five-judge appeals panel in the West Bank town of Ramallah last week that a lower court had overstepped its authority in November when it ordered the execution of Said Badarneh, 24, of the West Bank village of Yabad.
Badarneh had been found guilty of planning and assisting in the suicide bombing of a bus in the central Israeli town of Hadera. The bombing killed five Israelis and wounded dozens of others.
The terrorist had claimed responsibility for the attack in the name of the Hamas fundamentalist group.
Bachar said the Jenin military court had ignored his recommendation for a life sentence and asked the appeals court to had down six life sentences instead.
A ruling on the appeal was set for a later date, but the death sentence was expected to be reversed.
All previous military death sentences have been overturned and commuted to life in prison. The only time Israel has employed the death penalty was in 1962, with the execution of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin had opposed Badarneh’s death sentence, calling it a “blunder.”
Meanwhile, Badarneh expressed no remorse for what he had done. He suggested that there would be reprisals from Hamas militants if he were executed. He also said he was not afraid of having his appeal rejected.
“We are blowing ourselves up in buses,” he said. “Do you think I am afraid of the death penalty?”
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