DUBAI: An Israeli setter has been acquitted of assault charges after attacking a French nun near Jerusalem’s Old City in April, according to various media reports.
Yona Schreiber, from the Israeli-occupied West Bank settlement of Peduel, was absolved by a Jerusalem court on Wednesday of criminal responsibility after undergoing a psychiatric assessment.
In his ruling to acquit Schreiber, Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court Judge Ofir Tishler accepted a psychiatrist’s testimony that the Israeli settler was in a psychotic state when he carried out the attack and had been unaware of his actions.
The court ordered Schreiber to undergo treatment at a psychiatric hospital.
Security footage captured Schreiber running up to the French nun from behind and then shoving her to the ground, and then repeatedly kicking her.
Olivier Poquillon, the director of the French School of Biblical and Archaeological Research, said that the nun was a researcher at the school.
Religious groups have documented a rise in acts of harassment and violence against Christian pilgrims and clergy as well as Palestinian Christian residents, including assaults and spitting, often by extremist ultra-Orthodox Jews.
