The military court in Judea sentenced three terrorists who carried out an attack with an explosive charge to pay the two women who were the intended victims of the attack a cumulative compensation of more than $8,000, in addition to prison terms, the Honenu legal aid society reported on Tuesday.
The attack took place some two and a half years ago, when a squad of three terrorists detonated an explosive device on Route 60 in the southern Judaean Mountains, south of Hebron, while an Israeli car on its way from Otniel was passing by. The two Jewish women in the car were terrified by the loud explosion and by the dirt and shrapnel that hit their vehicle and fled the area, then called the security forces for help.
The indictment stated that the three defendants deliberately attempted to kill the women; one defendant was also accused of complicity in the production of a bomb; and another was accused of complicity in carrying, possessing, and manufacturing a weapon.
In the sentence, which was handed down three months ago as part of a plea bargain, the terrorists received various prison terms, as well as to pay the sum of 30,000 shekel (about $8,200) in compensation to their victims. The sum was recently transferred to the victims, Honenu reported.
According to Honenu, this case is part of an increasing trend in the military courts, by which victims of terrorism are involved in the legal proceedings against the terrorists who harmed them. Their involvement helps to exacerbate the punishment levied against the offenders, and often the victims of the terrorist crime receive monetary compensation for the injury they suffered.
Honenu attorney Haim Bleicher, who accompanied the women who were harmed in the attack, emphasized that the uniqueness of this case is in the high amount of compensation received by the victims, a sum usually prescribed only in cases of physical injury – while the harm to the women was psychological in this case.
Bleicher also noted with satisfaction that the terrorists were sentenced to significant prison terms in addition to paying compensation, as opposed to previous rulings that included compensation for the victims, in which the prison sentences had been reduced accordingly.
“We see value in the fact that terrorists are forced to actually pay money to those they injured,” Bleicher said. “In addition to being imprisoned for their actions, their money will be used for the welfare of the victims they wished to slaughter only because they were Jews.”
“We are working to ensure that in the course of the legal process, the victims of the offense will be the concern of the legal system, and not, heaven forbid, pity for the murderers,” Bleicher said.