Amir Guilty of Murder in Rabin Assassination

An Israeli court today convicted Yitzhak Rabin’s confessed assassin of murder, saying the former law student meticulously planned the killing and then calmly pulled the trigger.

Defendant Yigal Amir, 25, showed little emotion during the 45-minute reading of the verdict. Flanked by police officers in the dock, Amir yawned from time to time or looked at the audience in the crowded courtroom.

Amir was asked to stand when Judge Edmond Levy concluded his remarks by saying the defendant was guilty of murder. Amir briefly placed one hand on his forehead but displayed no other reaction.

The mandatory sentence for murder in Israel is life in prison. Levy was to pass sentence later today.

The judge rejected defense claims that Amir was obsessed with removing Rabin from office because of his opposition to the government’s peace policy and therefore not in full control when he opened fire on Rabin on Nov. 4.

The defense had aimed at a manslaughter conviction, which carries a sentence of 20 years in prison.

Citing a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation of the defendant, Levy said Amir was neither mentally ill nor emotionally disturbed. The judge said Amir meticulously planned the assassination over several months and calmly carried out the crime.

“With premeditation and remarkable coolness, 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,” Levy said.

Levy cited an abundance of evidence and said the prosecution’s case was based on “solid ground.”

It had appeared to be a closed case from the start: Amir was caught at the scene and has confessed to shooting Rabin in hopes of stopping his peace process with the Palestinians.

A grainy amateur video showed a man resembling Amir waiting by Rabin’s car and lunging forward to shoot him as he was about to leave a Tel Aviv peace rally.

Still, the trial transfixed Israelis, who were stunned and deeply shaken by Rabin’s killing--the first high-level assassination in their history. The broadcast of the shooting video in December was watched by a record TV audience.

Leah Rabin, widow of the late premier, said she was not interested in hearing the verdict, however.

“I don’t expect anything,” she said in a phone interview Tuesday evening. “I will not watch the verdict. This man [Amir] doesn’t interest me. All I know is that he killed my husband.”

Amir told the court he did not mean to kill Rabin but only to paralyze him, a statement that was entered as a not guilty plea.

His sometimes chaotic defense challenged police forensics, suggested there may have been another shooter and argued that Amir was obsessed and therefore not responsible for his actions.

The trial frequently took on a circus-like atmosphere, with Levy admonishing the defendant and his lawyers.

According to the charges, Amir decided to kill Rabin sometime after the premier signed his peace accord with the Palestinian Liberation Organization in September 1993. He allegedly recruited his brother Hagai and friend Dror Adani to help him.