Last update - 00:00 06/08/2007
Four suspects held in connection to Kiryat Shmona murder
By Eli Ashkenazi, Haaretz Correspondent
The police on Monday were holding four suspects in connection with the Friday murder of 25-year-old Anatoly Ziskin in Kiryat Shmona.
All four suspects are Kiryat Shmona residents.
The police arrested 23-year-old Charles (Felix) Gottleib and 22-year-old Boris Minkin on Sunday under suspicion they had been involved in the murder. On Monday, the police arrested two additional suspects in their twenties. The police will seek to extend the remand of all four suspects at the Acre Magistrate's Court on Tuesday.
One of the suspects attempted suicide while in custody in a holding cell. He tried to hang himself with a shoelace, but the lace broke dropping the suspect two the ground. The man broke two teeth in the fall and was taken to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.
Ziskin was buried Monday. His aunt said that "three years ago, Anatoly and his wife came to Israel. He worked in temporary jobs, of which the last was a job at a factory in a kibbutz. On weekends he tended to spend time with friends in bars. We weren't surprised when he didn't come home until Saturday morning, because he usually comes home in the early hours of the morning. He was a friendly person, smiling, with no criminal record."
Yivgeni Diakov, 18, was murdered in Kiryat Shmona less than 24 hours after Ziskin's body was discovered. Diakov was also buried Monday.
On Sunday morning, Diakov's body was discovered at a local mikveh (Jewish ritual bath), about 200 meters from the spot where Ziskin was discovered. There were signs of violence on his body. A gag order has been issued on the details of the police investigation into both murders.