Widow Calls for Death Penalty For Terrorists That Murdered

Interview with family of Baruch Mizrahi, as trial starts on his murderer – a terrorist that was freed in the ‘Shalit trade’. ‘Had Israel used the death penalty, Mizrahi would be alive’

By Yoni Kempinski, Ari Yashar

 

 

The military court at Ofer on Wednesday morning opened proceedings against the father and son terrorist duo that killed police Chief Superintendent Col. Baruch Mizrahi hy”d in April, as he drove to Kiryat Arba for a Passover seder meal with his pregnant wife and three of his children.

Terrorists in court – Photo: YouTube/Arutz Sheva

Mizrahi’s murderer was Ziyad Awad, one of 1,027 terrorists freed in the 2011 Gilad Shalit deal. In carrying out the attack the terrorist from the town of Idna, located to the west of Hevron, was aided by his 18-year-old Az a-Din who gathered up evidence after the shooting.

Members of the Almagor terror victims organization arrived at the court in the name of the bereaved family, and demanded the death penalty against the terrorist.

Given the nature of the crime and the fact that Awad returned to terror, Almagor argued he was deserving of the death penalty, and likewise called for life imprisonment for Az a-Din.

In the attack Mizrahi’s pregnant wife Hadas was wounded, and a child in another car was also lightly wounded.

“I was unable to enter the discussion and so I stayed outside,” said Hadas, noting that she was unable to look at the “monsters” who murdered her husband in cold blood. “I hope that the state of Israel will change its stance and rule the death penalty against the murderer.”

Talking about the experience of her family since the brutal murder, Hadas noted “this is a huge difficulty that is impossible to describe. The children go to kindergarten and school without their dad who so wanted to accompany them for the first time. It’s very hard for the family. We hope to rehabilitate, we will get up and try to be a happy family, despite the enormous difficulty.”

If Israel used the death penalty, Mizrahi “would be alive”

Security forces demolished the home of the 42-year-old Awad in July, after a court overruled a petition against the move.

The judges noted that Az a-Din was involved “up to his neck” in carrying out the attack, and that Awad’s wife was also well aware of the weapons stored in the home.

Police investigations revealed that Awad told his son Az a-Din that his motive for murdering Mizrahi was religious, and that “according to the religion of Islam, everyone who kills a Jews goes to paradise.”

Awad was previously jailed for murdering Palestinian Arabs suspected of cooperating with Israel, before being released in the Shalit deal.

Hadas noted that if the terrorist had been handed a death sentence her husband, head of the Technology Division in the Sigint Unit, would still be alive today.

“Had they not had a bargaining chip, and had they not known that they can be freed – Baruch would have been alive,” said Mizrahi. “A death sentence is the solution and we would like to hope that the state of Israel will give terrorists death sentences, not a prison sentence that is a five-star hotel and not a university for training for the next terror attacks.”

Reenacting the event, a tearful Hadas said “we were driving to the seder in our car when (the terrorist) shot at us, he hit Baruch in the head, I managed to hide our children.” Hadas was able to regain control of the car and prevent it from crashing despite being shot in the back.

 

View original Arutz Sheva publication at: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/185210#.VBn0xhaLUYA