Man allegedly killed by nephew in fight over inheritance

Police solve two murder cases in which victims were slain by family members.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
crime scene 248 88 generic (photo credit: Courtesy)
crime scene 248 88 generic
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Two murder cases in which victims were slain by family members were solved by police last week. On August 20, Ahmed Taha, 39, of Kafr Kasim, was gunned down in front of his two young children outside of his home. Officers from the Central District traced the killing to the victim's sister, Afaf Masrawa, 51, of Taibe, and her two sons, Mahmoud, 23, an Mustafa, 25. Police say Afaf instigated the killing due to a feud over inheritance with her brother. Mahmoud confessed to shooting his uncle, but then retracted his confession. Afaf and Mustafa were released on bail, while Mahmoud was charged last week with killing his uncle. Dep.-Cmdr. Yigal Ben Shalom, of the Central District's Investigations Department, told The Jerusalem Post that not enough evidence had been collected to indict the victim's sister. Police also solved a second murder case in which a florist, Nadra Badran, was shot in the head on October 29 in the shop in which she worked in Tira. Badran, 29, a mother of four, died of her wounds in the hospital shortly afterwards. Detectives from the Central District's Central Police suspected West Bank resident Muhammad Badran, 41, the victim's husband, of the murder. The couple were in the midst of bitter divorce proceedings. Badran, of the village of Kutzra, in the Palestinian Authority, has a long criminal record, and fled to the West Bank on the day of his wife's murder. He was arrested by PA police but released after spending a few days in custody. Back in Israel, the Central District's Central Unit assembled a significant amount of evidence tying Badran to the murder, police said. He had purchased the murder weapon and made preparations ahead of the killing, police added. On November 13, a special joint IDF and Ariel police raid was launched to arrest Badran in his home village of Kutzra. The suspect at first denied the murder but eventually went on to confess and to reenact the crime for police. On Sunday he was charged with murder.