Israeli prosecutors indicted a Jewish man on Thursday who they said was seen on video viciously attacking a nun in an incident that provoked global outrage.
Prosecutors charged the man with assault resulting in bodily harm motivated by hatred of a religious group. They requested that the suspect remain in pre-trial detention until the conclusion of the court proceedings.
The Times of Israel reported that the suspect is a 36-year-old resident of an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank. The assault charge carries a maximum of three years in prison, but that could be doubled if he is convicted of acting out of religious animosity, the paper said.
A video released by Israeli police and others shows the perpetrator walking up to the nun during the incident in late April and forcefully knocking her to the ground from behind. It also shows the man initially walking away but then returning and kicking the woman as she lay on the ground.
A passer-by eventually rushed to her aid and shoved the attacker away. The footage shows the perpetrator then also attacking him.
Prosecutors said the Christian woman suffered injuries to her face and leg.
Christians, particularly in Jerusalem, have faced increasing hostility for some time, with those affected reporting spitting attacks, among other incidents. Christians are a tiny minority in Israel, making up just 2% of the roughly 10 million citizens.
Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said during a visit to Germany this week that Christians in Israel lived with equal rights and in safety and that the country's Christian population was growing. He also threatened harsh punishments for those who committed violence against Christians. However, he did not explicitly mention the attack on the nun in Jerusalem.
