Yishai Schlissel

Schlissel was born on 10 December 1975 in Yad Binyamin.[3][4] He was the eldest of ten children. His parents are the children of Holocaust survivors. He studied Talmud, and is very religious. He later studied in a kolel in Jerusalem.[4]

In 2005, Schlissel stabbed three marchers during the gay pride parade in Jerusalem.[5][6] As a result, he was convicted of attempted murder and aggravated assault,[7] and sentenced to twelve years in prison.[6] In 2007, his sentence was reduced to ten years on appeal. Schlissel served his sentence at Maasiyahu Prison. In 2008, he was hospitalized for a month and a half over mental health issues and diagnosed with a paranoid psychiatric condition.[8] Schlissel was released in June 2015.[9][10]

Shortly after his release, he distributed a homophobic letter in his hometown which read, "It is the obligation of every Jew to keep his soul from punishment and stop this giant desecration of God's name next Thursday."[11] He was not tracked by the Judea and Samaria Police District because his previous crime had occurred in Jerusalem, outside of their jurisdiction.[9] Moreover, Moshe Edry, the chief of the Jerusalem District Police, was not warned that Schlissel would be coming to Jerusalem.[9]

On 30 July 2015, only three weeks after being released, he stabbed six marchers during the Jerusalem gay pride parade.[5][6] The act was widely condemned,[12] including by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.[13] One of the victims, 16-year-old Shira Banki, died of her wounds at the Hadassah Medical Center three days later, on 2 August 2015.[11][14] Shortly after, Prime Minister Netanyahu offered his condolences, adding "We will deal with the murderer to the fullest extent of the law."[11]

A psychiatric evaluation by the Israel Prison Service, with which Schlissel refused to cooperate, found him fit to stand trial. However, after state psychiatrists argued that his refusal to cooperate rendered the evaluation inconclusive, the court ordered that he be hospitalized for a 48-hour observation period for reevaluation. He was again found fit to stand trial.[15] On 24 August 2015, Shlissel was charged with one count of murder and six counts of attempted murder and aggravated assault at the Jerusalem District Court.[16] He refused to recognize the authority of the court to try him because it did not abide by Jewish religious law.[17] He announced that he would refuse to be represented by an attorney, and did not cooperate with the public defender assigned to represent him. On April 19, 2016, he was convicted.[18] On June 26, 2016, he was sentenced to life plus 31 years in prison, and was ordered to pay NIS 2,064,000 in compensation to the families of his victims.

Schlissel is serving his sentence in Ayalon Prison. In August 2016, Schlissel tore up pictures of another inmate's daughters due to them being "immodestly dressed", and was subsequently beaten by the inmate until guards separated them. Schlissel was hospitalized as a result of the beating he sustained, and was temporarily placed in solitary confinement as a disciplinary measure. After prison authorities carried out an evaluation, it was decided to separate him from other inmates due to his volatile behavior, and he was given his own cell in a protected area of the prison. One month later, Schlissel was again attacked and had to be hospitalized after an argument between him and two convicted mobsters in the prison yard escalated to the mobsters beating him until guards intervened.[19][20]

Before his prison sentence, Schlissel resided in Modi'in Illit, a Haredi Israeli settlement and city in the West Bank.[7] He is an Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jew.[5][6] Prior to his crime, he was married, with four children.[4] He divorced his wife at the beginning of his imprisonment in 2005.[4]