Ami Popper

Infobox Criminal
subject_name = Ami Popper

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image_size = 150px
image_caption =
date_of_birth = 1969
place_of_birth = Israel
date_of_death =
place_of_death =
charge =
conviction = 7 counts of murder
penalty = 7 lifetimes, later commuted to 40 years
status = prisoner
occupation =
spouse = was Sarah Popper [http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3354022,00.html]
parents =
children =

Ami Popper ( _he. עמי פופר; born 1969) is an Israeli convicted of murder.

Popper, a former dishonorably-discharged soldier, put on his Israeli army uniform on 20 May 1990 and asked men waiting at a bus stop in the Israeli town of Rishon Lezion for their identity cards. After confirming they were Arabs he lined them up and opened fire, killing seven. Within an hour, he was arrested by Israeli police.

After his act, riots by Palestinians led to the deaths of seven more Palestinians at the hands of Israeli security forces, with 700 injured.

Israel Radio reported that Popper claimed to have been distraught because his girlfriend had decided to leave him. Later he told police that he had been raped by an Arab when he was 13 and had committed these killings out of shame and a desire for revenge.

Popper was charged and convicted of seven acts of murder in March 1991. In prison he became religious and in June 1993 he married a Canadian woman from a family of Kach activists. They had three children.

In February 1999 Popper's sentence was commuted from seven life terms to 40 years. Currently he is expected be released on parole in 2023, after 33 years in prison.

On 17 January 2007, while on a 48-hour furlough, Popper was involved in a car accident caused by him crossing a solid line. His wife and one of his sons were killed in the accident. Popper himself was moderately injured. Israeli police reported that Popper's license had expired in 1999. [http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3354022,00.html]

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/271830.stm Middle East Israeli killers' sentences reduced] February 4, 1999, BBC