Jewish Groups in Los Angeles have criticised as “woefully inadequate” a plea deal that allows a man who killed a pro-Israel protester in 2023 to serve just one year in prison.
Loay Abdel Fattah Alnaji admitted charges relating to the 2023 death of a 69-year-old Jewish man, Paul Kessler, during a pro-Palestine demonstration in the city.
Kessler died from injuries sustained in an altercation with Alnaji on November 5 of that year.
The attack occurred in the Thousand Oaks neighbourhood amid competing pro- and anti-Israel rallies. During the march, Alnaji struck Kessler with a megaphone, causing the latter to fall and hit his head on the pavement.
Alnaji, 52, pleaded guilty to all charges, including felony involuntary manslaughter and felony battery causing serious bodily injury, on Tuesday after initially pleading not guilty.
Under state law, Alnaji could spend four years in jail, but the Ventura County Superior Court has suggested it will place Alnaji on probation, with up to a year in jail, according to the county district attorney’s office.
Erik Nasarenko, the district attorney, stated that “Alnaji should be sentenced to prison for his violent behavior, and our office strongly objects to any lesser sentence”.
Tom Dunlevy, supervising senior deputy district attorney for Ventura County, told JNS that “the judge offered probation if Alnaji pled guilty, but with a custodial sanction of up to 365 days in jail as a term of probation”.
“If the court places the defendant on probation, they then set the terms of probation,” he said. “One of those terms could be an amount of jail time up to a year in jail.”
“The judge’s offer was noted on the record in court,” he went on. “It is not unusual for a case to be conferenced with a judge if a defendant is considering pleading guilty before trial.
“In this case, we communicated our position that the defendant should receive a prison sentence, and the judge extended an offer over our objection, which the defendant accepted.
However, Jason Burt, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), condemned the sanction as “woefully inadequate”.
“Without real, lasting consequences, men with evil intent or anger in their hearts will not be deterred from harming an already vulnerable community, elderly and Jewish alike,” he told JNS.
“Jewish communities and individuals across the United States, including Mississippi, West Bloomfield, Michigan, Boulder, Colorado and Washington, DC, have endured violence, death and fear.
“This plea deal will only serve to further isolate and victimise Jewish communities in the United States and beyond.”
Likewise, Alyza Lewin, president of US affairs at the Combat Antisemitism Movement, told JNS that, ever since the county medical examiner’s office determined that Kessler’s death was a homicide, “the district attorney’s office sought the maximum sentence, and his family opposed leniency”.
“Nonetheless, the court offered the man responsible for his death the possibility of spending just one year in jail, followed by probation,” Lewin said. “This offer, opposed by the prosecutors, is not only an offensively light sentence for a homicide, it sends exactly the wrong message.
“Instead of serving as a warning to protesters that if they injure or, heaven forbid, kill someone at such a demonstration, they will be held accountable, this proposed sentence signals the opposite.”
The court’s decision gives protesters a “get out of jail free” card, Lewin claimed.
“At a time when protests, like the one at which Paul Kessler was killed, are becoming increasingly violent, it is disturbing to see some corners of our justice system treat the life of a Jewish American as worth so little,” she told JNS.
The law firm representing Alnaji argued that he tried to knock Kessler’s phone down after Kessler held it close to his face and made “inflammatory accusations”.
It also claimed that Kessler had balance issues due to a benign brain tumour, and that the tumour “exacerbated” his injuries from the fall.
“Mr. Alnaji chose the path of resolution to bring this matter to a close and prevent further community harm and violence,” stated Ron Bamieh, founding partner of an eponymous firm, who represents Alnaji.
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