Jerusalem court acquits man charged with assaulting nun, on the grounds of 'temporary insanity'

BEIRUT — A Jerusalem court acquitted a man charged three months ago with assaulting a nun in Jerusalem's Old City on the grounds of "temporary insanity," Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Thursday citing Israel's Kan public television.

The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court ruled that Yona Schreiber, a 36-year-old man arrested in April on suspicion of assaulting a French nun near the Tomb of David, "suffered a psychotic episode at the time of the incident and therefore was not responsible for his actions."

According to the public broadcaster's report, the court accepted the district psychiatrist's assessment, acquitting Schreiber and ordering that he be hospitalized.

In April, the Israel Police arrested Schreiber, taking him in for questioning on suspicion of assault with a racist motive.

At a Knesset hearing a month after the assault, member of the Israeli Kneisset, Gilad Kariv, said the man committed "an act of terror in every sense," praising police for the arrest but saying authorities must do more.

Security footage from the incident shows Schreiber running behind the nun before pushing her to the ground and walking away. The woman's head can be seen hitting a stone structure on the ground before the man is seen returning, kicking her and fighting witnesses who intervened, according to Haaretz.

The Consulate General of France in Jerusalem “firmly” condemned the attack in April, calling for the perpetrator “to be brought to justice for this act and for justice to be served.”

The attack drew international condemnation and came amid a growing pattern of attacks by Jewish extremists against Christians in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

In March, Israeli police prevented the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, from accessing the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate Palm Sunday mass. According to the Church, this was the first time in centuries that religious leaders of such rank were prevented from performing this ritual.

The West Bank and Jerusalem are ​home to around 50,000 Palestinian Christians, members of a religious community there stretching back to antiquity in a region that is home to ‌many of ⁠the faith's most important holy sites.