A parole board convened by the Ramle Magistrate's Court Sunday recommended against commuting the sentence of Night of the Pitchforks terrorist Mohammed Hassan Agbariya, in a letter to President Isaac Herzog Sunday.
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Agbariya is currently serving a life sentence for his role in the brutal 1992 murder of three Israeli soldiers.
"The prisoner took an active and significant in the event that had been burned into the national consciousness … The committee was presented with the prisoner's requests, the justifications for the request, as well as a great deal of material and reports from professionals. Likewise, we were presented with the position of the victims of the crime," the board members wrote.
"From the material we reviewed, it appears that the prisoner is continuing to engage in negative ideological activity, the likes of which brought him to carry out the murders from within the prison walls. We did not find that the prisoner has changed his ways or abandoned said ideology," they concluded.
Although the commutation of security prisoners' sentences is a rare occurrence, by law, the parole board was required to examine the request.
Upon learning Agbariya's request for parole had been denied, the relatives of Guy Friedman, one of the victims of the attack, issued a statement saying: "We have now received with great relief and joy the announcement from the parole board representative that the terrorist's request was denied. On behalf of our family, we thank everyone who tirelessly supported and helped us with this painful subject."
In a statement, the "Choose Life" forum of bereaved families that has accompanied the Friedmans protested the very fact the parole board convened to discuss the request.
Maurice Hirsch, director of legal strategies at Palestinian Media Watch, which assisted the Friedmans throughout the process, said: "We must welcome the board's decision to reject the terrorists' request to commute his sentence. In the absence of the death sentence, his place is in jail, for the rest of his life. We must now examine the various arrangements that allow for the mitigation of terrorists' sentences, with the goal of issuing comprehensive corrections so that we do not need to deal with these kinds of discussions again."
On Feb. 14, 1992, Agbariya, along with his brother Ibrahim Hassan Agbariya, their cousin Yahya Mustafa, and Mohammed Tawfik Jabarin, entered the encampment near Kibbutz Gilad in Ramot Menashe, where recent recruits had been engaged in field training, murdering Yaakov Dubinsky, Sergei Zatziriyani, and Yuri Preda.
Israel Hayom has learned that despite his request for parole, Agbariya has continued to incite to terrorism from prison.
In an article posted just a few weeks ago by the website of Asra Voice Radio, the self-described radio station of Palestinian prisoners, Agbariya called to continue the struggle against Israel.
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