Assassin: ‘My Aim Was Not To Kill’ Rabin

Answering murder charges at his trial Tuesday, Yigal Amir said he had intended only to paralyze Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and his policies when he fired three shots that killed Rabin on Nov. 4.

The assassin spoke on the first full day of his trial in Tel Aviv District Court.

The session, before a three-judge tribunal, gave the first indications of Amir’s line of defense.

Tuesday he argued his aim had been to disable Rabin. “My aim was not to kill a person,” he said. “If he had been paralyzed and not functioning as prime minister, it would have been the same for me.”