State Seeks Compensation from Terrorist’s Family

YERUSHALAYIM

In what appeared to be an unprecedented move, a state attorney has petitioned the Yerushalayim District Court for 8 million shekels compensation from the family of terrorist Fadi Kunbar, who murdered four soldiers in a ramming attack at Armon Hanatziv in January 2017.

The suit claims damages against Kunbar’s estate on behalf of the families of the victims and the state of Israel. The damages, which amount to about 2 million per victim, include: “the loss of earnings for the lost years, loss of pension and pension rights, shortening life expectancy” and “compensation for [the] pain and suffering that reflects the cruelty of the acts and the great suffering of all the murder victims.” Included as well is compensation for state expenditures: for payments to the bereaved families, the burial expenses and the cost of erecting gravestones.

The prosecutor is expected to submit a series of similar suits against the families of terrorists in other cases as well, according to media reports.

The suit was submitted by attorney Lior Scaberer of the civil department in the Yerushalayim District Attorney’s office, in conjunction with the civil enforcement unit in the State Prosecution and the department for claims and insurance in the Defense Ministry.

The left-wing Center for Defense of the Individual, which represent families of murderers in legal procedures against them, attacked the petition as “wicked, vengeful and ugly.”

The prosecutor responded that the goal of the claim is not only to restore to the state the expenses incurred, but to transmit a message that the state will hold terrorists and those who collaborate with them responsible for their acts.

The prosecutor added that “the claim was filed based on the benefits and pensions which the state has to provide based on law. However, in the light of the fact that the attacker perpetrated the damage, his legal inheritors must reimburse the state for its expenses.”

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