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Rabat — Last week marked the much-anticipated final verdict against Joseph Czuba, a 73-year-old man who received a sentence of 53 years in prison for the heinous Islamophobic murder of Wadee Alfayoumi.
A judge sentenced him on Friday last week, for the Islamophobic attack against the 6-year-old boy – whom he stabbed 26 times – and his mother in 2023. The boy was killed and the mother was sent to the hospital in critical condition.
The judge acknowledged the attack was motivated by anti-Muslim hate.
Czuba, who was the landlord of Wadee and his mother, committed the attack in October 2023, amid the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Palestinians.
Judge Amy Bertani Tomczak said that the killing of Wadee and the stabbing of his mother was “brutal and heinous.”
The perpetrator’s defense claimed that the man who was arrested following the killing of Wadee and the stabbing of his mother in cold blood did not receive a “fair trial.”
However, Wadee Alfayoumi’s great-uncle, Mahmoud Yousef, told the court following the sentence that no verdict is going to justify or satisfy the family.
“The day he was killed, his father had memories, had plans for his son,” the uncle said, as reported by NBC News.
Hanan Shaheen, Wadee’s mother, said during the trial that Czuba told her “you, as a Muslim, must pay.”
The Chicago Office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a statement on the court judgment last week, welcoming the verdict against Czuba for his involvement in a hate crime.
“No sentence can restore what was taken, but today’s outcome delivers a necessary measure of justice,” Executive Director of CAIR Chicago, Ahmed Rehab said.
He added that Wadee was targeted because of his religion and also because he was Palestinian.
“Our work now is to ensure that no other child suffers from the deadly consequences of hate,” he said, adding that boys and girls like Wadee are mass murdered weekly in Gaza.
“But rather than being brought to justice, their killers are protected by the majority of our politicians and whitewashed by much of our media,” said.
Wadee’s grandfather, quoted by CAIR, asked Czuba to explain his actions.
“We deserve for Mr. Joseph to explain his act… One stab was not enough. When he sat on top of him, what did he think?” the grandfather said.
In response to the attorney’s claims that Czubas’ heinous murder was out of rage following news on the attacks on Israel, the grandfather asked: “What type of news did he hear-on TV, radio, or whatever- that made him do such an unheard-of crime?”
