A 22-year-old man arrested on suspicion of stabbing to death a father of two who
asked him to keep the noise down in Beersheba denied he was ever at the murder
scene, his lawyer said Monday.
Idan Ohion was arrested on Sunday evening
on suspicion of murdering Gadi Vichman, 35, early on Saturday morning. An
additional eight suspects – four of whom were allegedly at the park where the
stabbing took place – were arrested with him.
Attorney Itai Itzhak said
his client denied being at the scene, following a remand hearing for his client
at the Beersheba Magistrate’s Court.
The court extended Ohion’s custody
by eight days.
A 17-year-old girl who was present at the scene, and who
was tracked down after her teacher reported her missing from school on Sunday,
had her custody extended by one day. The girl was part of the group that
allegedly included the stabber.
The girl reenacted the events of the
murder before detectives on Sunday in full view of Vichman’s widow, Michal, who
watched from her balcony. She witnessed the killing of her husband from the same
location, before running downstairs to try and help him.
The court said
the girl had cooperated fully with police and had no criminal past, unlike the
remainder of the suspects, who have criminal records. It rejected the police’s
request to keep her in custody for several more days.
Police said the
identity of the attackers became apparent in the hours after the attack, but
that detectives waited before making arrests in order to carry out surveillance
on the youths – which included tapping their phones – in order to gather
evidence against them.
Four of the suspects present at the scene were
arrested in hideouts, while five others were arrested for aiding and abetting
them.
The arrests followed an intensive investigation by the the Negev
police subdistrict’s central unit.
Meanwhile, in Rehovot, the
Magistrate’s Court extended by eight days the custody of three teenagers
suspected of chasing down and stabbing to death 17-year-old Orgil
Mauti.
Police say the attack was premeditated, and that each suspect
brought a knife or sharp object with the intention of stabbing Mauti.
The
mother of one suspect and the sister of another were also remanded in custody
for a few days due to suspicions that they assisted their relatives in evading
police. The efforts allegedly included an attempt by the sister to get rid of
bloodstained clothes.
“They have all reenacted the murder. The third
reenactment was held today,” a police spokeswoman said on Monday.
One
teen claimed during questioning that Mauti beat him, while another said that the
murder victim owed him “100 shekels.”