A 73-year-old landlord from Illinois has been given a 53-year prison sentence for the fatal stabbing of a six-year-old Palestinian-American child and seriously injuring the boy’s mother.
In February, Joseph Czuba was found guilty of murder and hate crimes for killing Wadee Alfayoumi and attacking his mother Hanan Shaheen in 2023, following the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza conflict, BBC news reported.
The victims were residing as tenants in Czuba’s property in Plainfield, situated approximately 64 km from Chicago. The prosecution established that he attacked them because of their Islamic faith.
Despite pleading not guilty, a jury reached a guilty verdict in under 90 minutes.
At Friday’s court proceedings, Wadee Alfayoumi’s great uncle, Mahmoud Yousef, stated that no punishment could adequately address the child’s death, as reported by NBC News.
He spoke about the father’s memories and plans for his son, which Czuba had wrongfully taken away. The elderly convict, appearing thin and weak in his red prison attire, chose to remain silent.
The court heard testimony from the victim’s mother, who provided distressing details of the attack, while Czuba’s former wife testified about his increasing agitation regarding the war.
Hanan Shaheen’s testimony revealed that Czuba had declared “you, as a Muslim, must die”, according to Reuters.
The prosecution detailed how Czuba forcibly entered the family’s rented accommodation and attacked them with a knife. The mother sustained over twelve stab wounds, whilst the young boy was stabbed 26 times.
The evidence presented included disturbing crime scene photographs, and police testimony described finding Czuba outside the property with blood covering his body and hands.
This lethal assault garnered nationwide attention and highlighted concerns about Islamophobia, anti-Muslim discrimination, and anti-Palestinian sentiment.
The young victim had celebrated his sixth birthday shortly before his death.
Ahmed Rehab, executive director of CAIR’s Chicago office, remembered the boy’s love for his family, friends, and sports including football and basketball.

Police and other members of the emergency services work at the scene where a car crashed in to a group of people in Stuttgart, southern Germany on May 2, 2025 injuring several people.
| Photo Credit: AFP

A car drove into a crowd in the southern German city of Stuttgart on Friday (May 2, 2025) injuring eight people, emergency services said, but police said there was “no indication” it had been an attack.

German security services have been on high alert following several deadly car-ramming attacks in recent months, including in the eastern city of Magdeburg and in the southern city of Munich.

Police in Stuttgart however said on their X account that “based on our current investigations… our colleagues at the scene believe this was a tragic accident”.

The police said that the incident in the central Olgaeck district had left “eight injured, including three seriously hurt”. At least one person had to be resuscitated.

The city fire service said on its X account that the three seriously injured people had been taken to hospital while others were being treated at the scene where debris lay scattered on the road.

A police spokeswoman told AFP that “at around 5:50 pm a black G-class Mercedes drove into a group of people” and that “the driver was arrested”.

Police warned people to avoid Stuttgart city centre and said that there was severe disruption to traffic.

A mangled pushchair was visible in images from the scene. The Bild daily reported witnesses as saying that a woman with a pushchair had been one of those hit by the car.

Columbia University seems to have become the new target for the Trump administration, which has accused it of anti-Semitism on college campuses. And now, the former professor Ahmed Eldin‘s statement has put Columbia University in danger.
Responding to a journalist , Piers Morgan’s question, will he call on Hamas to release the hostages, Eldin said “no.”
His response caught netizens’ attention. One of the users said, “Exactly. That’s why I call them terrorists lovers,” while another said, “They released hostages during the ceasefire. Israel broke the ceasefire because they want to continue the conflict and finally take over the West Bank. They don’t want peace, they want the land.”
Another user said, “The more these people speak, the clearer it becomes—they don’t support Palestinians, they support terrorists.”
Meanwhile, a senior Trump-appointed justice department official has initiated a controversial investigation into Columbia University student protesters, causing significant concern among career prosecutors who considered the probe politically driven and legally questionable, according to New York Times.
The investigation, targeting students protesting Israel’s actions in Gaza, faced resistance from a federal magistrate judge who considered Emil Bove III’s requested measures potentially unconstitutional and unwarranted, sources revealed.
This previously undisclosed broad-scale investigation by the civil rights division exemplifies the internal tensions within the department. The administration’s efforts to shift the division’s focus from protecting minority rights to addressing alleged antisemitism on university campuses and controlling student protests has created significant discord.
Recent weeks have witnessed numerous lawyers departing the division, largely due to such directives from political appointees, according to current and former officials.
While the Columbia investigation appears currently inactive, it represents a significant point of contention within the Justice Department during Trump’s second term, creating lasting friction among the department, courts and FBI, sources indicated.
Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, responded, “This is a false story fabricated by a group of people who allowed antisemitism and support of Hamas terrorists to fester for several years, standing by but doing nothing.”
The administration’s commitment to addressing campus protests against Israel’s Gaza operations has targeted both university administrators and student activists, with some facing immigration detention. Activists contend that authorities are incorrectly equating policy criticism with antisemitism.
The investigation commenced after February 26 events at Barnard College, where masked protesters entered Milbank Hall to oppose student expulsions. The incident, captured on video, resulted in minor injuries to a security guard.
Bove directed an immediate investigation, particularly focusing on Columbia University Apartheid Divest, according to three anonymous sources familiar with the private details.
Career prosecutors resisted Bove’s instructions to obtain the group’s membership list, questioning its existence and expressing concerns about First Amendment violations, these sources revealed.
Samantha Trepel, who previously secured Derek Chauvin’s federal conviction in the George Floyd case, was among the Justice Department lawyers assigned to this investigation, according to these individuals.