Israeli prosecution authorities on Wednesday indicted three men suspected of murdering Palestinian teen Mohamed Abu Khdeer in Jerusalem earlier this month, Israeli media has reported.
The three suspects are a 29-year-old man from the West Bank's Geva Binyamin settlement, a teenage settler from Jerusalem, and another teenage settler from the city of Beit Shemesh, Israel's Jerusalem Post reported.
The names of the three men have been withheld in line with a gag order.
According to the Israeli newspaper, the three suspects were charged with murder and kidnapping, along with a raft of other charges.
Two of the suspects, including the older man, are also accused of trying to kidnap a Palestinian child, Moussa Zalom, from Jerusalem's Beit Hanina neighborhood and assaulting him and his mother.
Additional charges against the pair include multiple attempts to torch Palestinian-owned vehicles in Jerusalem's Sur Baher neighborhood, the daily reported.
Shin Bet, Israel's domestic security agency, said the three suspects had admitted to kidnapping Abu Khdeer, beating him and burning him alive in revenge for the earlier disappearance and death of three Jewish teenage settlers in the occupied West Bank.
Abu Khdeer, 16, was abducted from outside his home in East Jerusalem's Shuafat neighborhood on June 2. Later the same day, his charred body was found in a forest near Jerusalem.
Footage taken from a security camera near Abu Khdeer's Jerusalem home showed what appeared to be Jewish settlers abducting the boy. In the footage, the kidnappers can be seen forcing him into their car before speeding off.
His murder was widely believed to be a "revenge" attack by Jewish extremists for the earlier disappearance and death of the three West Bank settlers.
No Palestinian group ever claimed responsibility for the three settlers' disappearance or subsequent death.
By Abdel-Raouf Arnaout
englishnews@aa.com.tr
www.aa.com.tr/en
