Galilee man gets 9 years for killing girl with ATV on Yom Kippur

Assad Shibli, who was operating his all-terrain vehicle which struck and killed nine-year-old Tal Zino on Yom Kippur two years ago in the Galilee town of Kfar Tabor, was sentenced on Tuesday to nine years in prison by Nazareth District Court.

Shibli was also ordered by the court to pay the Zino family NIS 50,000.

As the verdict was handed down, Zino's mother burst into tears. Shibli's father, though, shouted: "There was no fair trial here."

In July, Shibli was convicted of manslaughter in Zino's death.

Mohammed Shibli, a relative of the defendant who was also in the vehicle at the time, was found guilty of having fled the scene of an accident. He was sentenced to two years imprisonment.

He was cleared of manslaughter because it could not be confirmed that he was aware of Assad Shibli's intention to enter Kfar Tavor, where the incident took place on Yom Kippur.

The indictment alleged that the defendants drove into the town intentionally, knowing the Israeli custom for children to roam the roads freely on Yom Kippur as traffic comes to a halt.

Shibli's father Nassim said that he would appeal the verdict to the supreme court claiming the judge's decision was racist.

Judge Yitzhak Cohen said he could not trust the testimony of the two accused, who are both residents of the Bedouin town of Shibli, near Kfar Tavor.

"They understood the meaning of Yom Kippur and saw that there were many people on the road, including children. The driver ignored the amount of people, drove at high speed, on two wheels, while making a lot of noise, increased the speed and entered toward a crowd that tried to escape."