30 October 2023 , 16:52
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A landlord accused of stabbing to death a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy while allegedly paranoid about the Israel-Hamas war appeared in court today for the first time since his indictment. Joseph Czuba gave a cold stare as he appeared gaunt and emotionless, dressed in a red prison jumpsuit, socks and yellow slippers.
Joseph Czuba pleaded not guilty to the eight counts he was charged with last week. The plea was entered by his attorney, George Lenard, who refused to comment on the proceedings after Czuba's appearance. Czuba himself did not speak, looking down at the podium with his hands folded behind his back while he stood in front of the judge.
Wadea's father and other family members watched from inside, though they declined to speak to reporters afterwards.
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Hanaan Shahin and her son Wadea Al-Fayoume were brutally stabbed by their landlord in a hate-motivated attack that ended the boy's life
Wadea was just 6 and had tried to give the landlord a hug, according to reports, before he was brutally stabbedThe 71-year-old stands accused of brutally murdering Wadea Al-Fayoume and critically injuring his mother, Hanaan Shahin, in an assault inside their own home, which they rented from him in Plainfield, Illinois, a village just southwest of Chicago. He appeared in court in Joliet, a nearby city.
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Judge David Carlson ruled that Czuba will remain detained without bail until his next hearing on Jan. 8, with Will County Assistant State's Attorney Michael Fitzgerald calling him "a threat to the safety of the community."
Czuba had allegedly become angry over the Israel-Hamas war and blamed all Muslims for the violence (AP)"You Muslims must die!" Czuba allegedly shouted just before he choked and stabbed Hanaan, then stabbed Wadea 26 times in what the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is calling "our worst nightmare."
According to messages obtained by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the landlord allegedly "had been angry with what he was seeing in the news" after Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, inciting a violent retaliation by the Middle Eastern country. He allegedly feared Hanaan and Wadea would answer the reported calls for a global "day of jihad" called by a former Hamas leader days after the war began.
Czuba is led into court (AP)The incident began when Hanaan opened the door to Czuba, who had been knocking, allegedly wishing to confront her. He blamed her for the war because of her ethnicity and religion, CAIR noted.
Hanaan allegedly asked him to "pray for peace," at which point he tried to choke her and stabbed her, then went and found Wadea as she sat in the bathroom calling 911.
The home where the stabbing occurred was a two-family house in which Czuba lived on the top with his wife and Hanaan and Wadea lived together on the ground floor (AP)By the time Hanaan emerged just moments later to rush to her son, he was already dead, allegedly gutted by Czuba as he tried to hide in his room. "It all happened in seconds," she texted Wadea's father, CAIR said, as she was being treated in the hospital. She is still recovering from her injuries.
The small family had rented the ground floor of the house where Czuba and his wife lived for about two years, and in that time, there were no issues between them and Czuba. The incident is being investigated as a hate crime, which Czuba is being charged with.
Czuba looked gaunt and showed little emotion (AP)"As we await the official investigation of the local authorities, what we can confirm at the moment is that we have a murdered child in his own home, a six-year-old who had just celebrated his birthday a couple of weeks ago and a mother lying in the hospital in serious condition, both stabbed over a dozen times," CAIR-Chicago's Executive Director Ahmed Rehab said at the time. The White House also condemned the hate crime.
Czuba was officially charged with murder, attempted murder and a hate crime in an indictment unsealed last week that comes from an Illinois grand jury. The indictment contained eight charges related to the bloodbath and described Wadea's death as the consequence of "exceptionally brutal or heinous behaviour."
Hundreds of people attended the boy's funeral as his family remembered him for being an energetic kid who loved to play games (Getty Images)Hundreds of people attended Wadea's funeral on October 16, just two days after his death. He was remembered as an energetic boy who loved playing games. Rehab said: "Our hearts are heavy and our prayers are with the darling boy and his mother." He added: "We have full confidence in the authorities to investigate this heinous incident as a hate crime and to do so swiftly."
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Anti-Muslim sentiments have surged again across America after the war began, fueled by coverage of the war and "one-sided" rhetoric propagated by politicians, CAIR said. "This unthinkable, senseless crime did not happen in a vacuum," Rehab said.