Crime kingpin Rosenstein to be indicted for triple murder

Police: State witness says Rosenstein ordered the murders of Rafi Weitzman, David Ben-Mergi and Sharon Musawi.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Underworld kingpin Ze'ev Rosenstein will be indicted on Tuesday for the triple homicide of three criminal rivals in Tiberias in 2001.
On Sunday, state prosecutors and police filed a prosecutor's statement against Rosenstein at the Ramle Magistrate's Court, ahead of the official charges. His remand was extended by two days.
Last week, Rosenstein was arrested on suspicion of three counts of murder, in his prison cell at the Ayalon Prison in Ramle, where he is serving a 12-year sentence for an American conviction for Ecstasy trafficking.
Rosenstein was initially linked to the three murders by a suspect arrested in September 2009 during a massive police raid on a cocaine smuggling ring.
One man arrested in the raid, who became a state witness, told police Rosenstein had ordered the murders of underworld figures Rafi Weitzman, David Ben-Mergi and Sharon Musawi, in revenge for their alleged attempt to have Rosenstein killed in 1996.
The three men were shot dead from close range as they sat on the beach.
Despite the state witness, police struggled to assemble enough evidence, until the Central Police District's Central Unit succeeded in recruiting a second state witness, a man said to belong to the criminal underworld, who allegedly incriminated Rosenstein and linked him to the murders.