Jewish youth indicted for murdering a Palestinian; says he killed the man "just because he was Arab"

A Jewish youth from Upper Nazareth was indicted Thursday by the Nazareth District Court for killing Samah Karuwani three weeks ago just because of the latter's Arab identity.

The Jewish youth, Vitaly Sayenko, 18, made a decision to kill Karuwani for no other reason than that Karuwani was an Arab, the prosecution said.

The youth claimed that Karuwani was attempting to break into his apartment as he heard him walking in the stairwell.

Karuwani told Sayenko that he was on his way to visit close relatives, but Sayenko chased him and he managed to escape.

The Jewish youth went back to his apartment to grab a knife, he took the elevator to the entrance of the building where he took the knife out of his pants and struck Karuwani in the head and face.

The prosecution stated that Sayenko chased Karuwani with the intent to find and kill him.

After Sayenko managed to catch up with Karuwani, the latter tried to stop a passing car in an attempt to escape but the car just drove away.

Sayenko claimed that he asked the Arab youth why he was afraid, and that he handed him a cigarette before pulling the knife out of his pants and he started hitting him with its handle on the face and head.

The prosecution said that Karuwani was in shock, bleeding and badly beaten, and that he ran towards the building, and entered the elevator but Sayenko ran after him, pressed a button to stop the elevator and brought it back to the ground floor, according to the Israeli daily Haaretz.

When the elevator door opened, the Arab youth was pleading for his life but Sayenko stabbed him in the heart and killed him.

He then threw the knife in the elevator shaft, and went to his apartment to wash his bloody clothes and hands.