An Israeli man was sentenced on Tuesday to life in prison for the brutal murder of Palestinian teenager Muhammad Abu Khdeir in 2014.

Yosef Haim Ben-David was convicted for Abu Khdeir’s murder last month. Ben-David and two teenage accomplices abducted Abu Khdeir, drove him to a forest, choked and beat him, and then burnt him to death. The Jerusalem District Court rejected Ben-David’s insanity plea last month. The accomplices were sentenced in February to life and 21 years, respectively.

Ben-David apologized to the Abu Khdeir family, who attended many of the hearings, and claimed that the killing was “not in my character” and that he had been in control of what he was doing, The New York Times reported.

The court also added a twenty year sentence for other crimes Ben-David committed, including the attempted kidnapping of an eight-year-old. He was also ordered to pay 150,000 shekels (about $40,000) to the Abu Khdeir family and 20,000 shekels ($5,300) to the family of the 8-year-old.

Ben-David said upon his arrest that the motive for the killing was the kidnapping and murder of Israeli teenagers Eyal Yifrach, Gil-ad Shaar, and Naftali Fraenkel, whose bodies were found shortly before he and the others abducted Abu Khdeir and burned him to death.

The murder of Abu Khdeir was recognized as an act of terrorism and roundly condemned by Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called on the police to work quickly to solve the case. Security forces made arrests a few days after the crime.

The Palestinian Authority has not always been as quick to condemn terror: Public spaces like parks and schools are often named after terrorists. A watchdog group released a report earlier this week claiming that the PA continues to pay salaries to terrorists sitting in Israeli jails, despite having told donors that it stopped the practice.

[Photo: Yonatan Sindel / Flash90 ]