Court Sentences Israeli Arab Who Planned Terror Attack to Eight-Year Sentence

Courtroom. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

A Be’er Sheva court on Sunday sentenced Firas al-Omri, a 46-year-old Israeli Arab from the village of Sandala, outside Afula, for planning a major terror attack. Al-Omri was sentenced to eight years in prison and a fine of NIS 10,000.

Al-Omri is a senior member of the Islamic Movement, and ran a fund that collected money to help terrorists, according to the charges against him. He also had planned a terror attack against IDF soldiers, it said. Al-Omri discussed with terrorists the possibility of conducting a shooting, car-ramming, or other attack at a checkpoint, IDF base, or bus stop. Plans were never finalized, prosecutors said, but nevertheless many details of the plan had already been set in motion, they said. In addition, al-Omri was charged with funding terror, supporting an illegal organization, and various weapons charges.

In his defense, al-Omri said that while he had conspired to plan an attack, much of it was “just talk,” as proven by the fact that the idea had been kicked around for a long time without being put into action. “I regretted my actions,” he told the court. “I do not believe in violence, and I want to correct the suffering and shame I have put my family through. We all just want to go back to our normal lives.”

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