Last update - 00:00 12/11/2007
Court lifts gag on arrest of men suspected of killing Galilee man
By Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondent
Galilee police last month arrested three men from Western Galilee villages suspected of murdering a Kfar Yasif resident in June, it emerged Monday after a court lifted a gag order on the case.
The three are believed to have killed Yusuf Ali, 54 and then staged a fatal traffic accident in order to hide his cause of death.
A court has repeatedly extended their remands and Haifa District State Prosecution is expected to indict them for murder at a local court on Tuesday.
The incident occurred June 14 when 54-year-old Ali was found dead in his car. Initially it appeared he had died when his vehicle had crashed into an electricity pole by Road 70. However, the position his car was found in and other details located at the scene raised suspicions he had not been killed in the crash and his body was sent for examination at Abu Kabir.
Galilee police official in charge of the investigation, Yoram Azulay, said autopsy findings indicated he had died of strangulation and not as a result of the crash.
Police investigators focused on the people Ali met in the hours leading to his death. Police discovered he had spoken on the phone and met with a 50-year-old relative from the village of Sheikh Danun hours before his body was found. Police subsequently arrested the relative and Ali's wife, who was suspected to have known of the alleged plot to kill her husband.
Information revealed during the interrogation of the suspect led police to arrest the other two suspects. Ali's wife was released after police determined she had no prior knowledge of the murder.
The two suspects initially denied any connection to the murder. However, after being interrogated one of them confessed to have killed Ali and implicated two other men in the murder.
According to his testimony, the three men met Ali in a forested area where they strangled him to death, and then staged the accident to cover their tracks.