East J’lem terrorist sentenced to life for deadly 2015 French Hill ramming attack
A Jerusalem district court on Monday sentenced Khaled Koutineh to life in prison.
Koutineh is an east Jerusalem resident who was indicted in April 2016 on charges of murder and attempted murder for an attack carried out on the eve of Israeli Holocaust Memorial Day, April 15, 2015.
In addition life in prison for murder, he received an additional 20 years behind bars for attempted murder and fined NIS 516,000 NIS. The money will go to the murder victim’s parents and to a second victim who was wounded in the attack.
Koutineh rammed his car into two people who were standing at a French Hill bus stop on Haim Bar-Lev Boulevard in Jerusalem, in what was later classified as an attack spurred on by the perpetrator’s ideological and nationalistic motives.
One of the pedestrians, Shalom Yohai Cherki, was gravely injured and later died of his wounds. The other, Shira Klein, also sustained grave injuries and was hospitalized, but survived the attack and has recovered since.
Authorities said last year that Koutineh was driving along Route 1 searching for Jews on the side of the road to run over when he came upon a junction in French Hill and targeted pedestrians at the bus stop.
“I sought to kill Jews,” Koutineh was quoted as confessing to authorities.