Rishon mother charged with murder of her son, 4 years old.
By ABE SELIGmarie pizem 224.88(photo credit: Channel 2)
Ronnie Ron and Marie Pizem, Rose Pizem's grandfather and mother and the main suspects in her murder, had their remands extended for five days by the Ramle Magistrate Court on Thursday, while the four-year old girl's remains were en route to France for burial. Her funeral is to be held in Paris on Monday.
Marie Pizem collapsed upon entering the courtroom on Thursday, as a crowd of French-speaking hecklers hurled insults at her, saying she was responsible for her daughter's death.
"She's been under very difficult circumstances over the past two days," Pizem's lawyer, Revital Sweid, told The Jerusalem Post. "On Tuesday she was interrogated by police, and they showed her the bag Rose's remains were found in. Marie broke down screaming and tried to run out of the room. She has been in a bad state ever since then."
Sweid said she had asked the court to provide Pizem with a doctor or psychiatrist to evaluate her, a request the court granted.
Earlier this week, Sweid - who had been representing both Pizem and Ron - resigned from Ron's case, saying she needed to focus solely on Pizem. Throughout the case, Pizem has maintained that she had no knowledge of Rose's death.
While Ron has admitted to killing Rose and dumping her body in the Yarkon River in Tel Aviv - a confession partially verified by the discovery of her remains there last week - police believe that Marie, who is romantically involved with Ron, had some role in her death as well.
Indictments in the case were expected to be handed down this week. Police sources close to the case said that charges would be filed against the pair by Thursday - a stance they later backed away from as it became clear that Ron and Pizem would remain in custody over the weekend while police and attorneys shore up their case.
"We're waiting for the police to bring us the rest of the evidence, in order to determine exactly what we're working with and how to charge them accurately," said Tal Vider, a spokesman from the Tel Aviv district attorney's office.
Vider asserted that the delay in the case was in no way reflective of a problem, but simply the result of the district attorney's desire to deliver the proper indictments in what has proven to be a complicated case.
"This is the opposite of a weak spot," Vider said on Thursday. "We are giving investigators ample time to conclude so that we can deliver a strong indictment based on all of the facts. In my opinion, charges will be filed at the beginning of next week."
Meanwhile, in a second child-killing case, the mother of four-year old Alon Borisov was officially charged with his murder on Thursday. According to the indictment from the State Prosecutor's Office, Rishon Lezion resident Olga Borisov took her son to the beach in Bat Yam on August 28, and drowned him while he was sleeping.
Borisov was spotted by youths as she paced up and down the beach, mumbling that she had drowned her son. Passersby located the boy in the water and jumped into the sea to save him.
Paramedics arrived on the scene moments later and tried to resuscitate the child, but eventually pronounced him dead.
Borisov admitted to the crime after she was arrested, telling police during her interrogation that she had planned to take the boy's life a few days earlier, as he had been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder and was becoming a burden on her.
Based on her admission, Borisov was ordered to remain in custody by the court on Thursday, which cited the "horrible and vicious crime" she had carried out.
"That it was premeditated indicates that she is a dangerous, unpredictable woman," the court's statement said, "who poses a danger to all of those around her."
An indictment in the case had been anticipated since Sunday, when a psychiatric evaluation from the court deemed Borisov fit to stand trial.
Asked why the indictment in Borisov's case had been served sooner than Ron's or Pizem's, Vider said Rose's case was more complicated than Borisov's.
"She was arrested hours after the crime," Vider said of Borisov. "It just went much more quickly. In the case of Rose, it's much more complex and the body was not recovered until much later. That makes it more challenging."
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