Police get judge's backing in Rada murder case

By REBECCA ANNA STOIL
On the day that Ta'ir Rada was supposed to have celebrated her 14th birthday, the Acre Magistrate's Court on Thursday offered support for police claims that their case against her alleged murderer, Roman Zadorov, is well-founded. Zadorov, who admitted to committing the murder but then recanted his confession less than a day later, has insisted that the police are trying to "build a case" against an innocent man. Recently, police have been under fire for failure to present adequate evidence against Zadorov. But Judge Moshe Alter said he had seen new, more substantial evidence that justified the extension of Zadarov's remand for another five days. "There is no doubt that there is a reasonable suspicion that the man who is before me committed the murder - after all, he admitted to committing it before a source and before a police investigator," Alter wrote in his decision. "Even if he recanted afterwards, it is not my job in this hearing to check whether he is right in his argument... with regard to the circumstances surrounding that confession." This was the fourth remand extension for Zadorov, who was arrested for the first time four days after Rada's brutal murder. Thursday's hearing was Zadorov's fourth remand extension, the last day of which will mark 30 days in jail for the Ukrainian immigrant. Israeli law prohibits the courts from jailing Zadorov for more than 30 days unless the police submit a decree to continue the detention or receive an okay from the state attorney to continue the detention. In the decree, which police are expected to submit in another five days, police will officially announce that they plan to issue an indictment against Zadorov. Meanwhile, on the day before the Rada family commemorated 30 days since their daughter's murder in her Katzrin high school, representatives of the family said that they were planning to sue police for issuing unfounded statements claiming that Ta'ir had asked for a cigarette and cursed at her attacker.