Haifa Court Sentences Man to 11.5 Years in Plea Deal Over Cousin's Murder
The Haifa District Court sentenced Fares Asleh to 11.5 years in prison in a plea deal for assisting in the murder of his cousin Salah Asleh, dropping premeditated murder charges.
The Haifa District Court sentenced Fares Asleh, a 23-year-old resident of Arraba, to 11.5 years in prison under a plea bargain for assisting in the aggravated murder of his 21-year-old cousin, Salah Asleh, rather than convicting him and two other suspects of premeditated murder. The original indictment charged Fares Asleh with active participation in the shooting as a co-perpetrator, carrying a potential sentence of three life terms. However, due to evidentiary difficulties cited by the Haifa District Prosecutor's Office, the charges were amended, dropping the weapons offenses and the direct shooting allegations. He was convicted solely of assisting in aggravated murder.
The tragic incident took place on October 17, 2024, in Arraba. According to the amended indictment, a dispute had arisen in the weeks preceding the murder between the defendant and others against the victim. Upon learning that Salah Asleh was scheduled to arrive at a wedding in the city, the conspirators gathered information regarding his arrival time.
The Ambush and Shooting
At approximately 16:45, Salah Asleh arrived at Al-Hariqa Street and met with his friend, Radwan Asleh. About half an hour earlier, Fares Asleh had driven around the city with two other accomplices to locate the victim. Once located, the three parked a Mazda vehicle near an olive grove close to the scene. Two masked gunmen emerged from the vehicle, rushed toward the victim, and fired no less than 38 bullets at him while he attempted to defend himself by lying down in the back seat of his friend's car.
The shooting occurred in a residential area as vehicles passed by and children played on the roadside. The shooters ran back to the olive grove, entered the Mazda where the defendant was waiting, and fled Arraba. The following day, the getaway car was found burned. Salah Asleh was rushed to a medical clinic without a pulse or breathing, and his death was pronounced after resuscitation efforts failed.
Plea Bargain and Legal Arguments
The plea bargain was reached before a single prosecution witness testified. The prosecutor, Ilana Pikus-Roitbelt, requested a sentencing range of 12 to 16 years and demanded 14 years of actual imprisonment, alongside a suspended sentence and maximum financial compensation for the victim's family, emphasizing the high level of assistance provided by the defendant. The defense attorney, Shadi Sarouji, argued for a range of six to ten years, highlighting that the indictment was fundamentally altered, that his client never fired a weapon or entered the active crime scene, and that the confession spared a lengthy trial involving nearly a hundred prosecution witnesses.
A panel of judges headed by Judge Inas Salama, alongside judges Netanel Benishu and Shlomo Benjo, handed down the 11.5-year sentence, which fell below the prosecution's requested minimum threshold and ran concurrently with a suspended sentence from a previous conviction. Attorney Asi Piso represented the victim's family through the Ministry of Justice's SELA program. The family agreed to the plea bargain to avoid a prolonged evidentiary process.
«I am sorry for this, I take responsibility. I want to go to treatment, to be released, to be with my family and undergo treatment,» Fares Asleh told the judges in his final statement.
Two brothers from Arraba who were arrested during the investigation were released after 44 days in custody and were never prosecuted. The identities of the two masked gunmen were never established, and they were not added as defendants in the case, leaving police statistics to register the killing as a "solved" murder in Arab society.
