An Israeli court has acquitted Yona Schreiber, a settler from the occupied West Bank settlement of Peduel, who assaulted a French Catholic nun near Jerusalem’s Old City earlier this year, ruling him not responsible on grounds of “mental illness”.
The Jerusalem Magistrate Court issued the ruling Wednesday.
Schreiber’s lawyer, Idan Gamliel, described the attack as an “unfortunate incident” and said the defence took “note” of the nun’s “difficult feelings” about the assault.
Schreiber attacked the 48-year-old nun, a researcher at Jerusalem’s French School of Biblical and Archaeological Research, outside the Cenacle on Mount Zion in April, pushing her to the ground and kicking her in the head.
She required medical treatment immediately after the attack.
