JERUSALEM: A Palestinian teenager arrested after a viral video showed her slapping an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank has reached a plea deal with prosecutors to serve eight months in jail, her lawyer said.
Ahed Tamimi, was 16 at the time of the December incident. She has since turned 17.
Tamimi has been hailed as a hero by Palestinians who see her as bravely standing up to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank has already spent 3 months in an Israeli prison and so is expected to be free in July.
Her sentence would include time served and a fine of 5,000 shekels (USD 1,430), said Tamimi’s attorney Gaby Lasky, meaning she could be released in the summer.
She would plead guilty to only four of the 12 charges against her under the agreement, including assault, incitement and two counts of obstructing soldiers, Lasky said.
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Her trial opened on 13 February behind closed doors at the Ofer military court in the occupied West Bank.
“When they decided to keep her trial behind closed doors, we knew that we were not going to get a fair trial,” Ms Lasky told AFP.
Lasky however said she only planned to present the plea bargain to the military court if it first accepts an agreement with Tamimi’s mother, Nariman Tamimi.
A plea deal for Nariman Tamimi would also be for eight months in jail including time served, she said.
“When the European people see my daughter, blonde and blue-eyed, they are shaken, because they saw their children in front of them. It broke the stereotyped image of the Palestinian in the international community,” Tamimi’s father, Bassem Tamimi told Reuters.
Agencies input