US man convicted in hate crime murder of Palestinian American boy

All of us who are parents, who are Arab or Palestinian … who are Muslim, we all saw our children die in Wadee Alfayoumi, because this could have been any one of our boys, any one of our girls,

Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)-Chicago’s Ahmed Rehab said, ... according to The Associated Press news agency

We will never accept nor forget that a six-year-old child lost his life because of dangerous anti-Palestinian rhetoric,

he said, ... according to the AFP news agency

The landlord is killing me and my baby,

Shaheen is heard saying on the audio

If it wasn´t enough that this defendant killed that little boy, he left the knife in the little boy's body,

Michael Fitzgerald, a Will County assistant state's attorney, told jurors during opening statements

I don´t know if I should be pleased or upset, if I should be crying or laughing

Speaking after the verdict was handed down, the boy's father Odai Alfayoumi told reporters

Wadee was an innocent six-year-old child whose life was stolen in an act of unimaginable violence fueled by hatred

His statement said

He told me: ‘You, as a Muslim, must die,

said Shaheen, who testified in English and Arabic though a translator

Go beyond the emotions to carefully examine the evidence,

said Kylie Blatti, one of Czuba’s public defenders

That is the plot that he is presenting to you,

she told jurors

Hanan needs to move because her friends could come and do us harm,

Connor testified Czuba had told her

I told him, ‘Pray for peace,’

Shaheen testified

What do you do when you have an infested rat situation? You exterminate them. And that’s what he did that day,

prosecutor Chris Koch said in his closing argument Friday

This happened because this defendant was afraid that a war that had started on Oct. 7, 2023, a half a world away in the Middle East, was going to come to his doorstep,

prosecutor Michael Fitzgerald, a Will County assistant state’s attorney, told jurors in his opening statement

Oh no, stop!”

She said

You know this is a half-baked case that the prosecution is giving you,

he said