On video: Filing of an indictment against Edward Katzura for the aggravated murder of Yael Little Melnik (Photo: Shlomi Gabai)
A hearing was held today (Tuesday) in the district court in Haifa on the request for the release of Edward Kachura, the suspect in the murder of the girl Little Yael Melnik, as an alternative to detention.
"It didn't seem to us that there was even a discussion on whether to release him. He is a person who should be in prison for the rest of his life, we knew he was dangerous to Little Yael, and he would be dangerous to every woman out there," Little Yael's grandmother, who came to the hearing with her grandfather and sister Ruth, said of him.
Judge Silman decided that there was an evidentiary difficulty regarding the original charges, and a hearing was scheduled for next Wednesday, on the issue of the alternative to arrest.
Kacura was arrested in October 2021, after Melnik's body was found buried in the sand of a construction site.
So, the members of her family embarked on a persistent public struggle to have an indictment filed against him for murder, after the prosecutor's office considered charging him with lesser offenses.
"We protested, we demonstrated, we cried out, the whole State of Israel stood by us and in the end we succeeded," added grandmother Ludmila, "we are present at every discussion, we are in contact with the prosecutor's office. Seeing him in prison for the rest of his life will be a small consolation, but it is important to us, we will not give up and we will not be ready to accept Any release of his. There is no way that my granddaughter is buried in the ground from the age of 17, he will walk around freely outside."
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The sister together with the grandparents of Yael Melnik in a demonstration at the district court, this morning (Photo: Shlomi Gabai)
Outside the district court in Haifa, before the hearing, about 30 supporters of the Melnik family protested against the possible release of Kachura.
Sister Ruth said: "Our day-to-day dealings are very difficult, the longing for my sister is really difficult. It would be an unbearable situation if the murderer was released, and I will do everything to prevent that from happening. The murderer's place should be in prison - for life. In recent discussions, it is even difficult For us to be in them, we noticed that the judge intends to release him, it's an unimaginable situation. He murdered my sister and everyone knows it."
Attorneys Efrat Nachmani Bar and Sharon Zaggi Pinchas, who represent the Melnik family, said, "The entire public should be anxious about the possible release of a murderer who buried a young girl alive and to this day has not expressed a single word of remorse and continues to claim that the young Yael Little buried herself."
The district court has so far heard clear evidence that it was a murder and that the defendant's version is a fictional horror story, including the testimony of an expert doctor that a person cannot bury himself.
We will fight on the side of the Melnik family so that the murderer does not go free and remain in prison for the rest of his life.
As long as an illusory decision is made on his release, we demand on behalf of the family from the prosecutor's office to appeal it immediately."
Also, the Melnik family continues the public struggle and asks to help them - don't kill us twice on the Beactive website.
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