JERUSALEM (JTA) — A West Bank Jewish settler was convicted of kidnapping and assaulting a Palestinian teen.
Zvi Struk, 28, of Shiloh, was convicted Sunday in Jerusalem District Court on three counts of assault, battery under aggravated circumstances and kidnapping for the purpose of causing grave bodily injury, as well as one count of animal abuse.
According to the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din, about 90 percent of complaints filed by Palestinians against Israeli citizens accusing them of harming Palestinians and their property end without an indictment. Yesh Din represented the teen.
The incident occurred in July 2007, when Struck and an accomplice kidnapped the 15-year-old Palestinian boy, beat him and left him naked and tied up in an open field, according to the indictment. The youth managed to untie himself several hours later and return home. Struk also killed a lamb that the teen, a shepherder, was watching.
Struk is the son of Yesha Human Rights Organization head Orit Struk. The accomplice was never caught, Ynet reported.
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