KUALA LUMPUR – A 71-year-old American man has pleaded not guilty to killing 6-year-old Palestinian-American Wadea Al-Fayoume by stabbing him 26 times and wounding Hanaan Shahin in Chicago.
Joseph Czuba claimed trial after being charged by an Illinois grand jury as authorities accused him of targeting the mother and son earlier this month because they were Muslims amid the Israel-Palestine war.
When the eight charges were read out before the judge, Czuba did not speak, only standing and looking down at the podium with his hands folded behind his back, reported the Associated Press.
The murder charge had described the boy’s death as the result of “exceptionally brutal or heinous behaviour”.
Judge David Carlson ruled that Czuba will remain detained as he awaits a hearing on January 8.
Wadea’s father and other family members were in court while Hanaan is recovering from multiple stab wounds.
Will County assistant state attorney Michael Fitzgerald told the court that Czuba was a danger to Hanaan as well as the rest of the community.
However, Czuba’s lawyer, George Lenard, countered that the accused is old and a military veteran without prior criminal convictions.
Earlier this month, Wadea was found dead in his Plainfield Township home after being stabbed multiple times with a 12-inch serrated military style knife.
Hanaan was brutally attacked with the knife a dozen times and choked by Czuba, who is also their landlord.
According to written text messages reportedly sent to the father of the boy by Hanaan from the hospital, Czuba had been angry with what he was seeing in the news about the escalating Israel and Hamas clash in the Middle East.
Mother and son, who lived on the ground floor of an apartment building for the last two years, had no notable issues with Czuba. Wadea had just celebrated his sixth birthday a couple of weeks before he was murdered. – October 31, 2023