Life Sentence for Murderer of IDF Soldier Tomer Hazan

Ari Yashar

Life Sentence for Murderer of IDF Soldier Tomer Hazan

Nadal Amar sentenced by military court to life plus 20 years for abduction and murder of off-duty soldier he worked with.

Israel National News

2014-07-10


Tomer Hazan HYD (Courtesy of the family)

Nadal Amar, the terrorist who murdered IDF First Sergeant Tomer Hazan HYD last September, was given a life sentence this week by a military court, after being found guilty in May of murder charges, in addition to a 20-year sentence for other offenses.

The IDF Spokesperson Unit reported Wednesday that a military court in Samaria handed down the ruling. The terrorist illegally entered Israel and worked at a restaurant in Bat Yam, next to Tel Aviv, where he met Hazan and deceived him into driving with him to his village, before strangling him to death in an open field and hiding his body in a water hole.

Nadal originally abducted Hazan with the intention to use him to barter the release of his brother Nour Al-din, a Fatah terrorist currently serving a 29-year sentence. Nour Al-din similarly plead guilty and was convicted of being an accomplice in the kidnapping and murder, which he helped plan.

Prosecutor Captain Inbar Ben-Simon commented on the ruling, saying “we must give a message that stresses the sanctity of life so as to stop the phenomenon of abducting people to use them as bargaining chips to free terrorists.”

The cases of Nadal’s two brothers who helped him plan and conduct the murder will soon be heard at a military court in Samaria as well.

Deterrence after the Abduction and Murder of the Three Teens

During the proceedings, the abduction and murder of Eyal Yifrah (19), Naftali Frenkel (16) and Gilad Sha’ar (16) by Hamas terrorists occurred on June 12, and with it widespread celebration among the local Arab populations. The background added to the decision to give a strict ruling to deter future abductions and murders.

“We couldn’t ignore the goings-on in the Palestinian street regarding the abduction of citizens and soldiers and the demeaning of their lives for bargaining,” read the verdict. “The court is obligated to to speak up and be heard in its tight verdict so as to prevent the phenomenon, even when the worst of all has occurred.”

Ben-Simon added “when we see case after case of people trying to abduct soldiers—it was clear to us that this incident is not a lone case. Precisely because of that we asked for the involvement of the court in the verdict and particularly in (setting) deterrence.”

The prosecutor concluded “I hope the verdict will deter anyone from thinking that the solution and tool to achieve his objectives is using people as bargaining chips.”

As noted the life sentence comes in response to the murder charges; the 20-year additional sentence corresponds to charges of kidnapping, being in Israel illegally and disrupting court proceedings.

Last month a new “Life Without Parole” Bill passed preliminary Knesset readings, with the aim of preventing the release of jailed terrorists, whether through peace talk “gestures” or trades to free Israeli hostages.

However Meir Indor, head of the Almagor terror victims organization, noted the bill has several flaws which he argued render it ineffective. A prime problem he noted was that the bill did not cover terrorists sentenced in a military court, such as Nadal Amar.