Rabin Assassin Denounces Court as He Gets Life Sentence

Sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for gunning down Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Yigal Amir denounced the state and the Israeli court that convicted him and insisted that he acted on behalf of all Jews when he killed the man who sought peace with the Palestinians.

“The state of Israel is a monstrosity,” Amir shouted after Judge Edmond Levy read the sentence. Police quickly hustled Amir out of the packed courtroom as Levy and the two other judges on the panel signed their decision.

Levy had earlier read a 45-minute summary of the court’s decision to convict Amir of first-degree murder. Under Israeli law, murder carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment. The court also sentenced Amir to six years for injuring Rabin’s bodyguard, Yoram Rubin, who was shot in the arm as he tried to shield Rabin. Levy ordered that the sentences be served consecutively.

Prosecutor Pnina Guy, who said she was satisfied with the verdict and the sentence, said Amir will now be forced to serve at least 26 years in prison before he can be eligible for a presidential pardon. In Israel, the death penalty is reserved for Nazi war criminals.

“The punishment pales in comparison with the crime, in my eyes,” Prime Minister Shimon Peres told reporters after the sentence was handed down. “I feel that this murder is a violation of the values of our nation--from the Ten Commandments to the foundation laws of the justice of this people and this state.”

Amir, who was tackled by police and bodyguards an instant after he shot Rabin in the back at close range Nov. 4 after a Tel Aviv peace rally, confessed to the assassination and told his interrogators that he would have liked to have killed Peres too.

Making his final statement to the court before the sentence was handed down, the 25-year-old Amir, a devoutly Orthodox Jew, said he had acted out of religious conviction and concern for his people when he shot Rabin. He complained that the court never allowed him to mount the political defense he said was the essence of his case.

“Everything I did, I did for God, for the Torah of Israel, the people of Israel and the land of Israel,” Amir told the court. He then dismissed the proceedings as a “show trial” and told Levy: “May God help you.”

As he spoke, Amir rested one hand on his hip and seemed relaxed. Earlier, his attention wandered as Levy read the verdict.

As in past court appearances, Amir smiled at members of his family who sat in the courtroom, and joked with the police officers flanking him. Several times, he yawned and stretched impatiently.

Defense lawyer Shmuel Flishman said he intends to appeal the conviction to the High Court of Justice, a panel of Israel’s Supreme Court. According to Israeli law, the defense has 45 days to file an appeal.

During the proceedings, Amir’s mother, Geula, read psalms from a gilt-edged book and occasionally wept quietly as she sat with her husband and three daughters. Another son, Hagai, is being tried on charges of conspiring with Yigal and a friend to murder Rabin.

“Minute by minute, I live this,” Geula Amir told reporters outside the courtroom after the verdict was handed down.

“It is very hard,” said her husband, Shlomo Amir. He said that he had urged his son “to express regret” to the court but that his son told him: “I am whole with what I did.”

No member of the Rabin family witnessed the sentencing.