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A landlord of Illinois, who has deadly stabbed a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy and was seriously injured, has been sentenced to 53 years in prison.
Joseph Czuba, 73, was convicted in February for murder and hate crimes for the death of Wadee Alfayoumi, and the injury of his mother Hanan Shaheen in 2023 shortly after the start of the Israel-Gaza war.
The family had been tenants in the house of Czuba in Plainfield, about 64 km (40 miles) of Chicago. Prosecutors said he focused on their Muslim beliefs.
Czuba had not been guilty, but jury members condemned him after less than 90 minutes.
The great uncle of Wadee Alfayoumi, Mahmoud Yousef, told the court on Friday that no sense would “justify” the death of the boy, according to NBC News.
“The day he was killed, had his father memories, had plans for his son,” he continued and said that Czuba “had no right to take them.”
The thin and fragile looking convict appeared in a red prison uniform, refused to speak on behalf of himself.
The trial included testimony of the mother of Alfayoumi, who described the meeting in moving details, and of Czuba’s now ex-wife, who said he had been agitated by the war.
Hanan Shaheen testified during the process that Czuba had told her “you, as a Muslim, must die”, according to Reuters.
On the day of the attack, he forced his way to the house of the Alfayoumi family” He had rented his rooms and had attacked them with a knife, said prosecutors.
He put the mother over a dozen times, prosecutors, then turned to the boy and stabbed him 26 times.
Proof during the trial included the photos of the graphic town of crime and the police that they found Czuba outside the house after the attack with his body and hands covered with blood.
The fatal attack received national attention and renewed concerns of Islamophobia, anti-Muslim discrimination, and anti-Palestinian prejudices.
The young boy had celebrated his sixth birthday a few weeks before he was killed.
“He loved his family, his friends. He loved football, he loved basketball,” said the executive director of the Chicago Office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair), Ahmed Rehab, at the time.
