Jordan frees soldier who killed 7 Israeli children

A Jordanian soldier who completed a prison sentence for killing 7 Israeli schoolchildren was freed in the middle of the night, reportedly to avoid large celebrations. 

A Jordanian soldier, convicted of killing seven Israeli schoolgirls 20 years ago, was released from prison after serving his sentence.

The soldier, Ahmad Daqamseh, is reportedly now with his family in the village of Ibdir, close to the city Irbid in northern Jordan.

Daqamseh was found guilty by a Jordanian military tribunal in July 1997 for firing on approximately 80 seventh and eighth grade schoolgirls from the AMIT Fuerst School in Beit Shemesh, who were on a school field trip to the “Island of Peace” tourist resort. The incident, which resulted in the killing of seven of the schoolgirls, took place on March 13 of that year.

Because the tribunal found Daqamseh mentally unstable, he was given a life sentence instead of the death penalty. Daqamseh was released after completing a life sentence under Jordanian law, which is equivalent to just 20 years of incarceration.

Israeli media said Jordanian authorities chose to release Daqamseh in the middle of the night to avoid drawing large crowds and celebrations from many in the country, who hail him as a hero.

At no point has Daqamseh expressed remorse for his actions. In 2004, he told Jordanian weekly a-Shahed, “If I could return to that moment, I would behave exactly the same way,” and “Every day that passes, I grow stronger in the belief that what I did was my duty.”

By: Jonathan Benedek World Israel News