ILLINOIS, USA: An Illinois landlord who killed a 6-year-old Muslim boy and severely injured his mother in a vicious hate-crime attack days after the war in Gaza began was sentenced Friday to 53 years in prison.
Joseph Czuba, 73, was found guilty in February of murder, attempted murder and hate-crime charges in the death of Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of his mother, Hanan Shaheen.
Czuba targeted them in October 2023 because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas. The family was renting rooms from Czuba at a suburban Chicago house at the time of the attack.
Evidence at trial included harrowing testimony from Shaheen and her frantic 911 call, along with bloody crime scene photos and police video. Jurors deliberated less than 90 minutes before handing in a verdict.
In February, a jury convicted Czuba of murder and hate crime charges of fatally stabbing Alfayoumi and wounding his mother. The family had been renting rooms in Czuba’s home in Plainfield, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from Chicago, in 2023 when the attack happened.
Central to prosecutors’ case was harrowing testimony from the boy’s mother, who said Czuba attacked her before moving on to her son, insisting they had to leave because they were Muslim. Prosecutors also played the 911 call and showed police footage. Czuba’s wife, Mary, whom he has since divorced, also testified for the prosecution, saying he had become agitated about the Israel-Hamas war, which had erupted days earlier.
Police said Czuba pulled a knife from a holder on a belt and stabbed the boy 26 times, leaving the knife in the child’s body. Some of the bloody crime scene photos were so explicit that the judge agreed to turn television screens showing them away from the audience, which included Wadee’s relatives.
“He could not escape,” Michael Fitzgerald, a Will County assistant state’s attorney, told jurors at trial. “If it wasn’t enough that this defendant killed that little boy, he left the knife in the little boy’s body.”
The jury deliberated for 90 minutes before returning a verdict. Czuba is eligible for a minimum prison sentence of 20 to 60 years or life, according to the Will County state’s attorney’s office.
Prosecutors declined to comment ahead of Friday’s hearing and have not said what sentence they will seek. Illinois does not have the death penalty.
The attack renewed fears of anti-Muslim discrimination and hit particularly hard in Plainfield and surrounding suburbs, which have a large and established Palestinian community. Wadee’s funeral drew large crowds and Plainfield officials have dedicated a park playground in his honor.
Czuba did not speak during the trial. His defense attorneys argued that there were holes in the case. His public defender, George Lenard, has not addressed reporters and declined comment ahead of the sentencing.
Shaheen had more than a dozen stab wounds and it took her weeks to recover.
She said there were no prior issues in the two years she rented from the Czubas, even sharing a kitchen and a living room.
Then after the start of the war, Czuba told her that they had to move out because Muslims were not welcome. He later confronted Shaheen and attacked her, holding her down, stabbing her and trying to break her teeth.
“He told me ‘You, as a Muslim, must die,’” said Shaheen, who testified in English and Arabic through a translator.
Police testified that officers found Czuba outside the house, sitting on the ground with blood on his body and hands.
Separately, lawsuits have been filed over the boy’s death, including by his father, Odai Alfayoumi, who is divorced from Shaheen and was not living with them. The US Department of Justice also launched a federal hate crimes investigation.
Man sentenced to 53 years in prison in hate-crime attack on Palestinian-American boy, mother
https://arab.news/93syd
Man sentenced to 53 years in prison in hate-crime attack on Palestinian-American boy, mother
- Joseph Czuba, 73, was found guilty in February of murder, attempted murder and hate-crime charges in the death of Wadee Alfayoumi
- Evidence at trial included harrowing testimony from Shaheen and her frantic 911 call
2 US service members and one American civilian killed in ambush in Syria, US Central Command says
- The attack is the first to inflict casualties since the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad a year ago
DAMASCUS, Syria: Two US service members and one American civilian have been killed and three other people wounded in an ambush on Saturday by the Daesh group in central Syria, the US Central Command said.
The attack is the first to inflict casualties since the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad a year ago.
Central Command said in a post on X that as a matter of respect for the families and in accordance with Department of War policy, the identities of the service members will be withheld until 24 hours after their next of kin have been notified.
Shots were fired at Syrian and US forces on Saturday during a visit by American troops to a historic central town, leaving several wounded, Syria’s state media and a war monitor said.
The shooting took place near Palmyra, according to the state-run SANA news agency, which said two members of Syria’s security force and several US service members were wounded. The injured were taken by helicopters to the Al-Tanf garrison near the border with Iraq and Jordan.
SANA said the attacker was killed, without providing further details.
A US defense official told The Associated Press that they are aware of the reports and did not have any information to provide immediately. The official spoke on condition of anonymity for not being authorized to speak to the media.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least three Syrian security members were wounded as well as several Americans. It added that the attacker was a member of the Syrian security force.
The US has hundreds of troops deployed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition fighting the Daesh group.
Last month, Syria joined the international coalition fighting against Daesh as Damascus improves its relations with Western countries following last year’s fall of President Bashar Assad when insurgents captured his seat of power in Damascus.
The US had no diplomatic relations with Syria under Assad, but ties have warmed since the fall of the five-decade Assad family rule. The interim president, Ahmad Al-Sharaa, made a historic visit to Washington last month where he held talks with President Donald Trump.
Daesh was defeated in Syria in 2019 but the group’s sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks in the country. The United Nations says the group still has between 5,000 and 7,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq.
US troops, which have maintained a presence in different parts of Syria — including Al-Tanf garrison in the central province of Homs — to train other forces as part of a broad campaign against Daesh, have been targeted in the past. One of the deadliest attacks occurred in 2019 in the northern town of Manbij when a blast killed two US service members and two American civilians as well as others from Syria while conducting a patrol.
