Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Bulletin: Roman Zadarov; Israel: Appeal rejected; Israeli Supreme Court: Roman Zadorov murdered Tair Rada Nine years after the murder that shocked the country, the case reached its peak when the judges announced that they are rejecting Zadarov’s appeal after he was already convicted twice, claiming that the proof that he committed the murder is beyond a reasonable doubt.


"The Israeli Supreme Court 2 to 1 decided to reject Roman Zadarov’s appeal, after he was convicted twice of murdering a little girl named Tair Rada nine years ago while she was studying in school.  The position of one of the judges is that it may be that Zadorov’s guilt is not proven after many of those present explained that Zadorov is right. Zadarov’s lawyers explained their logic for submitting the request: “Can we give someone a life prison sentence when a Supreme Court judge says there are doubts about his conviction? We were disappointed of course. We expected that Roman would be acquitted.” In contrast, the Northern District Prosecution welcomed the decision: “Tools for hope ended in the Israeli Supreme Court.”
http://www.jerusalemonline.com/news/in-israel/local/israeli-supreme-court-roman-zadarov-murdered-tair-rada-17970

 From a recent post: "Forensic issues - and an allegation of interference with the independence of the Coroner's office - abound. "At the center of a long session that the Supreme Court held a little over a year ago on the appeal of Zadorov’s second conviction was the issue of footprints at the murder scene, a locked toilet stall in a second floor lavatory at the Nofei Golan school in Katzrin, including blood found on Rada’s jeans. According to an expert prosecution witness, there was a high probability that the footprints were those of Zadorov. For its part, however, the defense presented the opinion of a former employee of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation who claimed that the blood stains were not footprints at all. Recently, as disclosed by Haaretz, a complication arose in the case after the head of the commission that oversees the prosecutor’s office, retired Judge Hila Gerstl, issued a decision regarding an attempt to change an affidavit by the head of the coroner’s office, Dr. Chen Kugel, who expressed opposition to the state’s position in the Zadorov case. For her part, Gerstl said this constituted “apparent interference in the chief testimony of a witness” and ruled that the prosecutor’s office had mishandled the case.""
 http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2015/12/bulletin-roman-zadorov-israel-supreme.html