Kiryat Shmona murder suspects warned of indictment

Felix Gottleib, Vladislav Betenin likely to be indicted for allegedly murdering Yevgeni Daikov and Anatoly Ziskin.

By REBECCA ANNA STOIL
crime scene 88 (photo credit: )
crime scene 88
(photo credit: )
Two suspects in the grisly double murder case that rocked the northern Galilee town of Kiryat Shmona at the beginning of August came one step closer to the courtroom on Sunday after prosecutors submitted an official warning conveying intent to indict them. Felix Gottleib and Vladislav Betenin were informed that they were likely to be indicted on Monday morning at the Northern District Court in Nazareth, for allegedly murdering Yevgeni Daikov and Anatoly Ziskin. Last Wednesday, police in Kiryat Shmona announced that they had cracked the murder case and arrested three suspects - Gottleib, Betenin, and Boris Menkin. According to the police, the three allegedly beat Ziskin to death after Ziskin, who was sitting in the stairwell in the building where he and Betenin lived, refused to move when Betenin's wife tried to get down the stairs. Ziskin, 25, had a four-year-old daughter and no prior criminal record. Family members said he had immigrated to Israel only three years ago. Three hours after Ziskin's murder, detectives believe, Gottleib and Betenin lured teenager Daikov, who had witnessed the murder, to a secret meeting, claiming that they needed to work on a unified cover story. Instead, the two allegedly beat Daikov to death, leaving his body in weeds near a local mikva - 300 meters from where Ziskin's body was found. Gottlieb and Menkin, both 23 and from Kiryat Shmona, were arrested for Ziskin's murder even before Daikov's body was discovered. The double murders shook the town of 25,000, more accustomed to Katyushas than to whodunits. Three weeks after the murder, Igor Daikov, 48, was arrested after allegedly attacking his wife in hopes that his resulting incarceration would provide an opportunity for him to kill his son's murderers.