Judges visit scene of Ta'ir Rada murder

Accompanied by accused, victim's parents, three-judge panel visits Nofei Golan high school in Katzrin.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
zadorov in court 298.88 (photo credit: Channel 2)
zadorov in court 298.88
(photo credit: Channel 2)
Judges and the accused in the Ta'ir Rada murder case inspected her school in Katzrin, Thursday, in order to investigate the place where the shocking murder of the 13-year old girl took place. In light of the intricacies of the case, the judges requested to measure precisely every detail of the arena. "I have a lot of esteem for the judges. We hope that they will be able to appreciate the absurdities within the evidence," said the sorrowful mother, Ilana. Three of the judges trying Roman Zadorov, suspected of murdering Rada in December 2006 in Katzrin, inspected the Nofei Golan School, the scene of the murder. The visit took place under heavy security of elite commando police officers, accompanied by Ta'ir's parents, the accused himself, defense representatives and the prosecution. It was clarified to the delegation from the district court in Nazareth, deputy president Yitzchak Cohen and the judges Esther Hellman and Haim Gelpaz at the beginning of the inspection that since the original investigation took place, the bathroom stalls where the murder took place had been renovated, and those currently at the scene did not exactly match the ones that were there at the time of the crime. Therefore, they visited different, older bathroom stalls, in order to see the building that was in the area at the time. Afterwards, over the following hour, the judges precisely re-enacted and documented Ta'ir's last steps, taking into account the multiple testimonies on the file. At first they visited the pergola where Ta'ir was seen before she walked to a drinking fountain on her way to the bathrooms. At the drinking fountain, Cohen asked the head of the research staff, Superintendent Yoram Ezolai, to act as a bypassing observer, in order to determine the viewpoints of those standing in close proximity to the fountain. Exact distances between the different sites on the scene were also measured. The delegation then went down to the bomb shelter where Zadorov worked. While the accused accompanied them he was handcuffed and restrained. For the whole length of the visit Zadorov kept a straight face, and when the group went down to the area where he worked still refused to respond or speak with journalists.