The decision to release Eduard Kachura, the main suspect in the murder of 17-year-old Lital Yael Melnik, to house arrest on Monday has been overturned by the Haifa District Court several hours later.
The district court ruled Kachura should be released to house arrest and declined to extend his detention. However, the court overturned its decision and Kachura is now set to stay in custody until Tuesday.
Kachura, 49, is suspected of murdering the girl he first met when she was hospitalized in the institution he was employed at as a psychiatric nurse.
He was set to be released to house arrest due to police difficulties establishing evidence of his role in the murder.
However, the court has agreed to delay his release until tomorrow morning as the police attempt to file an appeal. They have said that if the appeal is not filed by 4 p.m. then Kachura will be released with restrictive conditions in place.
Melnik's body was discovered partially buried in a construction site in early October, a day after she was reported missing by her grandmother.
Kachura was known to have been in a romantic relationship with the girl in the past and has denied any connection to her murder.
"She was not my patient. She was my partner. We had shared an intimate relationship," he said, claiming that Melnik had been with him willingly the day she went missing and that she had wanted to escape from her grandmother.
Following the court's decision to release Kachura to house arrest, Melnik's grandmother, with whom she lived, asked if this is "what our country looks like," fainted.
Melnik's sister begged the judge to reconsider, saying "I beg you, do not release him. He is a mentally ill killer, he murdered my sister."