An Israeli court convicted Yigal Amir of murder Wednesday in the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, sentencing him to life imprisonment for planning the crime and calmly pulling the trigger.
Amir confessed to killing the prime minister after a Nov. 4 peace rally, saying he had to save Israel from further bloodshed by stopping Rabin from trading land for peace with the Palestinians.His lawyers had pleaded for a manslaughter conviction, saying Amir was so obsessed with removing Rabin from office that he was not in full control when he opened fire. Manslaughter carries a 20-year sentence.
But the three-judge panel agreed the killing was premeditated and gave Amir the mandatory sentence. The death penalty is reserved for Nazi war criminals.
"With premeditation and amazing calm, he decided that the death of the late prime minister was the only way to stop the peace process he opposed, and he took this path to its very end," Judge Edmund Levy said.
Amir, a 25-year-old former law student and a deeply religious Jew, showed no remorse in court Wednesday. He yawned, looked at the audience in the packed courtroom or smiled.