13-year-old Palestinian indicted for murder of border police officer
A 13-year-old Palestinian was indicted on charges of murder on Thursday after stabbing a Border Police officer at a Jerusalem checkpoint.
Staff Sgt. Asil Sawaed
Border Police Staff Sgt. Asil Sawaed was killed at the Shuafat checkpoint at the northern entrance of Jerusalem on Feb. 13 when he boarded a bus that arrived to make a routine security check. Muhammad Zalbani, a 13-year-old resident of the nearby Shuafat Refugee Camp, is charged with pulling out a knife and stabbing Sawaed.
After Sawaed was stabbed, a civilian guard aboard the bus fired at Zalbani but hit Sawaed instead. Sawaed was evacuated with a stab wound on his head and a bullet wound in his thigh but died of blood loss before arriving at the hospital.
Zalbani was detained unhurt. He is currently being held in a facility for minors.
The indictment, filed in the Jerusalem District Juvenile Court, charges Zalbani with murder under aggravated circumstances.
According to the indictment, Zalbani found the knife near his aunt’s house and took it to carry out an attack. On the bus, he kept the knife by his leg so he could quickly pull it out. The indictment noted that Zalbani didn’t comply with police instructions to step off the bus during the security check.
The 21-year-old Sawaed was buried in Hussniyya, a Bedouin village in northern Israel.
