ndcuffed him to a radiator but, once they were out of the room, he managed to free himself, locate his phone – which had been taken from him – and escape….
In a statement from Kashti read out by the prosecuting lawyer Craig Jones, the court heard how he was in “complete shock and fear and felt as though he was going to end up dead.”
“As an Israeli Jew, this was my own personal October 7,” Kashti said in his victim impact statement, going on to say that October 7 “was flashing through my mind” as he was restrained. Jones said Kashti also said he was thinking about his “Jewish ancestors who suffered in the Holocaust” during the ordeal….
They conspired to keep the motivations for the kidnapping “clean” and only about the money to make it appear as “a non-politically motivated kidnap”.
Simi wrote that if Kashti were to realise “the Islamic angle, the eventual retaliation and effort into retaliation is 10 times worse.”
“We shouldn’t colour this as an Islamic thing. Don’t say Islamic phrases around him, so we’re just in it for the money,” the messages said, as read by Prosecutor Jones.
Intended to act as “inspiration” for the crime, pinned to the top of the Telegram group chat was an Islamic “litany for victory”, which they suggested they recite or listen to every day while “keeping in mind your intention of jihad,” the prosecution said.
Assuring the group, Simi messaged: “All three of us have complete 100 per cent faith in Allah, so we can’t fail.”
Ha!
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