Sentence of man who abused Palestinian youth exacerbated

Court adds one year to sentence of Zvi Stroke, who abused bounded teen; Stroke maintains police prevented him from presenting alibi

Aviel Magnezi |Published: 08.13.12 , 18:19

Zvi Stroke, who was convicted of the abuse of a 15-year-old Palestinian boy will serve 2.5 years in jail, not 18 months, the Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The court thus accepted the state's appeal on Stroke's original sentence, rendered by the Jerusalem District Court.

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Stroke was convicted of the 2007 abduction and abuse of a Palestinian boy. According to the case file, Stroke, and another man, abducted the boy, took him to an abandoned field, stripped him naked and beat him severely.

Once done, they abandoned him – bound and blindfolded – on the side of the road. He was eventually able to get loose and made his way to a nearby village from where he was rushed to a Nablus hospital.

Stroke, 29, a resident of the West Bank settlement of Shilo, appealed his conviction, saying that the police prevented him from presenting his alibi and that the State ignored exculpatory evidence, prompting his wrongful conviction.

The State argued that the punishment should befit the heinous nature of his acts.

The Supreme Court ruled that the original trial was fair and that there were no grounds to overturn the verdict.