The district court in Haifa decided today (Tuesday) not to release Edward Katzura, who was accused of murdering the girl Yael Melnik about a year and a half ago, to house arrest.
Therefore, despite his request, Katzura, who is accused of murder under aggravated circumstances, will remain in custody.
Melnik's grandparents, who were very nervous before the hearing, cried with excitement.
They were accompanied and supported in the courtroom by lawyer Sharon Zaggi Pinchas, who represents them together with attorney Efrat Nachmani Bar.
About a month ago at the hearing of the request to release him, Judge Nitzan Silman said that there were "significant evidentiary difficulties" to prove that Katsura intentionally murdered Melnik. Katsura is accused of murder In aggravating circumstances, but the judge who heard the request to release him to house arrest, who does not hear the murder case itself, made it clear that Dr. Yigla's opinion and explanations, on which the indictment is based, are fraught with difficulties.
However, Judge Silman added that there is sound evidence for the lesser offenses of death, for which the punishment is significantly lighter.
The judge also wrote that "this is an extreme and difficult case, and there is no evidence analysis to give moral validity one way or another to the actions attributed to her - this is a bleak life of a young and weakened girl."
will remain in custody.
Summary (Photo: Shlomi Gabai)
Katzura 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 entire 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 his release. There is no way that my granddaughter is buried in the ground from the age of 17, he will roam freely outside."
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