Court Overrules Shortened Sentence of Hadas Malka’s Murderer

An Israeli court overruled on Thursday a parole board decision to reduce by one third the sentence of a terrorist convicted of taking part in the murder of Hadas Malka Hy”d in Yerushalayim in June last year.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu welcomed the decision of the Be’er Sheva District Court to keep Hani Dari, who drove the terrorists to the scene where they killed Malka, to remain behind bars.

“This is the correct decision. Murderers and their accomplices need to be punished severely and to serve their sentences in full,” Netanyahu said in a statement released by his office on Thursday.

Speaking for the judiciary panel, Yael Raz-Levy, explained the ruling:

“The court intervenes in decisions if a legal or factual error has been made, or if the decision is deemed as unreasonable. With that in mind, we believe that the parole board’s decision contains in itself a number of errors,” she said, according to Ynet.

“Firstly, the parole board did not consider the potential danger that could arise following the early release, and in our opinion, it did not prove that said danger has diminished.&

The gravity of the crime also weighed in their decision:

“The execution of this deadly attack would not have been possible without the defendant’s contribution. The committee should have taken into account the opinion of Shin Bet, which underlines that the defendant—who is a resident of Israel—had a duty to prevent the entry of illegals, so considering the severity of the attack, the fatal outcome and the need for deterrence, the issue of retribution and deterrence should have held more weight. &

“There is a need to deter entry of illegal workers,” stated Raz-Levy, before adding that the possibility of the defendant being reinstated upon his release in his previous position in transportation, indicates that he still poses a potential threat to the “public’s safety.”

Prior to the court’s ruling, David Malka, the soldier’s father, urged the judges to reverse the parole board, as he spoke movingly of his family’s grief:

“Since that fateful Friday … our souls are filled with pain and sorrow. Pain, which is physical and emotional … Hadas, who loved life so much and contributed to the state, will never have a family of her own,” he told the judges. &

“Since they’ve informed us that the committee intends to shorten the sentence of the terrorist’s accomplice, we’ve been overwhelmed with sadness and pain,” he went went on to write in a letter, emphasizing that if “his sentence will be shortened, it will be a crushing blow for us, from which we will not be able to recover.”

Afterwards, he said that the court’s decision on Thursday was the least that should have been done for the sake of justice.