Yona Avrushmi pleaded not guilty to the murder of Peace Now activist Emil Grunzweig more than a year ago at the opening of his trial at a Jerusalem district court today.
Avrushmi, a 28-year-old resident of Ofra on the West Bank, has been charged with throwing the hand grenade which killed Grunzweig and wounded 10 others at a demonstration against the war in Lebanon outside the Knesset on February 10, 1983. He claimed he was at his parents’ home at the time of the incident and, according to his attorney, his whereabouts can be proven.
The court rejected a defense request to drop a second charge of attempted murder which relates to the wounded persons. But it agreed to a short postponement of the trial for further hearings.
FOUR U.S. OLIM INDICTED
Yesterday, the district court formally indicted four American Jewish immigrants for acts of terror against Arabs, including the wounding of six Arab day laborers in a bus ambush on the West Bank on March 4. The men charged were identified as Meir Leibowitz, 21, Levi Hazan, 23, and Yehuda Richter, 21, all implicated in the bus attack; and Yekutiel Godinsky, 20, accused of four other attacks on Arabs.
Another suspect in the bus ambush, Craig Leitner, agreed to testify for the prosecution and was not charged. The four men charged were identified as members of Rabbi Meir Kahane’s extremist Kach movement. Hazan and Richter, originally from Los Angeles and Godinsky, from New York, hold dual U.S. and Israeli citizenship, as does Leitner who is also from Los Angeles. Leibowitz’s citizenship was not disclosed.
According to prosecuting attorney Michael Shaked, the men charged with the bus ambush can receive prison terms of up to 20 years and Godinsky faces a possible 15 years in prison.
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