JERUSALEM (JTA) — A Jerusalem court convicted two Israeli police officers of negligent homicide in the death of a Palestinian car thief.
The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Monday ruled that officers Assaf Yekutieli and Baruch Peretz were responsible for the death of Abu Jariban when they dumped him on the side of the road two weeks after he was seriously injured in a car accident while driving a stolen vehicle.
Jariban had been released into the custody of the officers. The judge said the officers left him to die after discovering there was no room for him at an Israel Prison Service’s medical facility.
Jariban of Gaza was in Israel illegally when he was injured.
"No person with eyes on his face and compassion in his heart would have made the decision that the two made," Judge Haim Liran said, according to Haaretz.
The officers could each face up to three years in prison.
