Jerusalem court acquits man indicted in nun attack, orders psychiatric care
- A Jerusalem Magistrate's Court judge acquitted a Jewish man from a West Bank settlement accused of attacking a Catholic nun, ruling he was entitled to an insanity defense after a district psychiatrist found he was psychotic at the time of the April assault.
- The judge ordered the man committed to psychiatric hospitalization for up to six years despite the acquittal.
- The violent attack on the nun in Jerusalem's Old City prompted concerns about escalating harassment of Christians, with one organization tracking a near-tripling of incidents over four years, now occurring at a rate of about one per day.
A Jerusalem Magistrate's Court judge acquitted a man accused of attacking a Catholic nun in April, finding he met the criteria for an insanity defense after a district psychiatrist determined he was psychotic at the time of the assault. However, the judge ordered him committed to psychiatric hospitalization for up to six years.
The attack on the nun in Jerusalem's Old City raised concerns about rising harassment of Christians in the region. An organization tracking such incidents reported a near-tripling of cases over four years, with incidents now occurring at approximately one per day, primarily perpetrated by Jewish religious nationalists. The director of the French Biblical and Archeological School of Jerusalem, where the nun works as a researcher, expressed hope that the psychiatric treatment would be fully carried out while regretting that no criminal penalty was imposed.
Experts attribute hostility toward Christians to historical persecution of Jews in Christian-majority European countries, religious practices perceived as idol worship, and the presence of Christians near sites sacred to Jews. Israel's special envoy to the Christian world stated that Israeli police recently appointed an English-speaking officer as a first point of contact for Christians reporting incidents, with plans to develop additional practical solutions to address the phenomenon.
耶路撒冷法院宣判修女袭击案被告无罪，下令接受精神治疗
耶路撒冷地方法院法官宣判一名被控袭击天主教修女的男子无罪，理由是地区精神科医生认定他在4月袭击事件发生时患有精神病，符合精神错乱抗辩条件。但法官仍下令该男子接受长达六年的精神病住院治疗。
这次针对耶路撒冷旧城一名修女的袭击事件引发了对基督徒遭骚扰现象升级的担忧。一个追踪此类事件的组织报告称，四年来此类案件增加了近三倍，目前每天约发生一起，主要由犹太宗教民族主义者实施。修女所在的法国圣经与考古学校耶路撒冷分校主任表示，希望精神治疗能够全面进行，但同时对未施加刑事处罚感到遗憾。
专家将对基督徒的敌意归因于犹太人在基督教占多数的欧洲国家遭受的历史迫害、被视为偶像崇拜的宗教实践，以及基督徒在对犹太人具有神圣意义的地点附近的存在。以色列对基督教世界的特使表示，以色列警方最近任命了一名英语警官作为基督徒报告事件的第一联系人，并计划制定更多实际解决方案来应对这一现象。