Jerusalem court acquits a man indicted in nun attack, orders psychiatric care

A Jerusalem Magistrate's Court judge has acquitted a man who was accused of attacking a Catholic nun in the city's Old City in April. However, instead of releasing him, the judge ordered the man to be committed to psychiatric hospitalization for up to six years. The attack sent shockwaves through Israel and its Christian communities, with some describing it as a rare but worrisome escalation in verbal and physical abuse against minorities in Jerusalem's Old City. According to witnesses, the nun was walking in her habit when she was attacked by a Jewish man from a settlement in the occupied West Bank. The court found that there was evidence of the man's guilt, but he claimed an insanity defense after being diagnosed with psychosis at the time of the attack. The director of the French Biblical and Archeological School of Jerusalem, where the nun is a researcher, has expressed hope that the psychiatric hospitalization will be carried out to ensure public safety and allow people from all communities to live in Jerusalem without fear.