Last update - 00:00 30/01/2007
77-year-old Tel Aviv resident convicted of murdering businessman
By Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondent
The Tel Aviv District Court on Tuesday convicted Tovia Nadav, a 77-year resident of the city, for the July 2004 murder of businessman Leon Adam.
The judges ruled that the murder was committed during a meeting, set up by Nadav, at an electronics store on Mivtzah Kadesh Street in Tel Aviv.
The motive for the murder was apparently a financial dispute between the two.
According to the charges, Nadav shot Adam twice in the head, and then tried to cover his tracks. He then allegedly had Adam's car towed away, and dumped his body in a construction site on Kdoshei HaShoah street in Tel Aviv.
Nadav was convicted on the basis of considerable evidence. His fingerprints were found on the victim's car.
According to the charges, Nadav killed Adam using his personal firearm, which he claimed had disappeared months earlier.
The judges ruled that the weapon vanished "under suspicious circumstances."
During his investigation, Nadav contradicted himself several times. "The defendant tightened the net of evidence around him with his numerous lies, like a fish struggling to get free," Judge Saviona Roth Levy wrote in the verdict.
Nadav maintained his innocence after the conviction. "I am innocent. This has nothing to do with me. I could never do such things - my life is over because of this affair. A terrible mistake has been made. I am the wrong man," he said.