Court Rejects Terrorist’s Appeal for Parole

A parole board on Sunday recommended against commuting the sentence of Night of the Pitchforks terrorist Mohammed Hassan Agbariya.

Agbariya is currently serving a life sentence for his role in the brutal 1992 murder of three IDF soldiers, Hy”d.

“The prisoner took an active and significant role in the event that has been burned into the national consciousness… The committee was presented with the prisoner’s requests, the justifications for the request, as well as a great deal of material and reports from professionals. Likewise, we were presented with the position of the victims of the crime,” the board members wrote.

“From the material we reviewed, it appears that the prisoner is continuing to engage in negative ideological activity from within the prison walls, the likes of which brought him to carry out the murders. We did not find that the prisoner has changed his ways or abandoned said ideology,” they concluded.

Although the commutation of security prisoners’ sentences is a rare occurrence, by law, the parole board is required to examine the request.

Upon learning that Agbariya’s request for parole had been denied, the relatives of one of the victims of the attack issued a statement, saying: “We have now received with great relief and joy the announcement from the parole board representative that the terrorist’s request was denied. On behalf of our family, we thank everyone who tirelessly supported and helped us with this painful subject.”

On Feb. 14, 1992, Agbariya, along with his brother Ibrahim Hassan Agbariya, their cousin Yahya Mustafa, and Mohammed Tawfik Jabarin, entered the encampment near Kibbutz Gilad in Ramot Menashe. Armed with knives, axes and pitchforks, the four murdered Yaakov Dubinsky, Sergei Zatziriyani and Yuri Preda, Hy”d.

Yisrael Hayom reported that Agbariya has continued to incite to terrorism from prison. In an article posted just a few weeks ago by the website of Asra Voice Radio, the self-described radio station of Palestinian prisoners, Agbariya called to continue the struggle against Israel.

“The resistance cannot retreat from what began in the battle of the sword of Jerusalem or go back to the mentality of a ‘resolution to the conflict,’” Agbariya wrote in the article, in which he also praised rioters in Jaffa and young people in Abu Ghosh fighting against Israel.

In another article published around a year and a half ago, he called for the Palestinian nationalist movement to align with China to fight Israel.

“From a political standpoint, the Palestinian resistance will begin to find its path, first wisely and secretly, and then publicly, to fight for the hearts of the Chinese nation and its leadership through emphasizing a common cause between the two peoples,” he wrote.