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Sukula Sukul, 45, stabbed to death by her husband Saturday. (Moti Kimche)
Last update - 10:48 07/10/2007
Man arrested for murdering wife to undergo psychiatric exam
By Haaretz Service and News Agencies
Tags: Ethiopian, Rishon Letzion 

Shifrao Sukul, 60, arrested for the stabbing death of his wife and mother of his 11 children, will meet with a psychiatrist on Sunday who will determine whether or not he is mentally fit to stand trial.

The murder of Sukula Sukul, 48, took place on Friday night in the couple's Rishon Letzion home.

Sukula's remand was extended by nine days on Saturday evening.
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The suspect confessed to the murder, which was the culmination of years of domestic unrest, according to neighbors and one of the couple's daughters.

At about 10:30 Friday night neighbors on Agnon Street in Rishon Letzion, called police to report screams and cries of "Mom, mom" from a nearby apartment.

"The officers who entered the apartment saw a woman lying on the living-room floor, bleeding," Rishon Letzion police commander Ami Eshed said Saturday. Efforts by paramedics to revive Sukula Sukul, who had multiple stab wounds, failed.

Her husband and two of their children were near the body. Shifrao was arrested after one of the children told police he was the perpetrator. The oldest son, Tekele Sukul, 26, who was wounded in the incident, was hospitalized.

The Sukuls immigrated from Ethiopia two and a half years ago and moved into their Rishon home after a short stay in an immigrant absorption center. Neither of the parents worked. A frequent bone of contention between the couple, and apparently the immediate cause of the dispute that led to Friday's murder, was the fact that Tekele continued to live at home. The father wanted him to leave, while the mother was adamant that he stay.

Neighbors described how the older children led their younger siblings out of the apartment. Tekele and his 18-year-old brother stayed inside and tried to stop their father. At some point Tekele jumped on his father, who stabbed him, and wrested the knife out of his father's hands. Tekele passed it to his brother, who grabbed it and ran outside. The police arrived shortly after that. Tekele said afterward that after stabbing his mother, his father went toward the children's bedrooms to kill them. The first one he entered was Tekele's, and that is where the struggle between them - and Tekele's stab wounds - occurred.

"We understand from the children that on the morning of the incident the parents once again argued about the son, and the argument continued into the evening, when the father apparently decided to murder his wife," Eshed said. Shifrao took a kitchen knife, and while nine of their children were sleeping in their rooms - two of the family's children do not live at home - he attacked his wife. The children, the youngest of whom is six, were woken by their mother's screams.

The police said the family did not have a record of domestic violence. Family members, however, said yesterday that the couple had fought for years, especially since coming to Israel, and that Sukula had not wanted to go to the police.

"My father always harassed us. He didn't love us," Tekele Sukul told Haaretz yesterday. "We always tried to please him. He always beat my mother and there were fights at home all the time. He drank large amounts of arak. He was unstable. I don't know a father could look in rooms for his children and want to kill them. It was a miracle that he went into mine first, otherwise he would have murdered the entire family. I didn't hear him attack my mother. What a tragedy my father brought on us," Tekele said.

Tekele's grandfather fills out his daughter's story: "My daughter lost her mother when she was young," Yilau Samneh, 70, related yesterday. "I always worried about her. He was the first boy she ever met. They had 11 children. He always locked the children into their rooms and refused to give them food or let them turn on the lights or take showers.
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  1.   How sad. Too much violence and no respect for women 12:53  |  Sara 06/10/07
  2.   The evil that lurks within is to be overcome, not given into. 17:16  |  Still so weak 06/10/07
  3.   The goodness and decency of zionism 00:14  |  Hannah 07/10/07
  4.   #3..Hannah.try reading the article 00:46  |  Nemesis 07/10/07
  5.   THEIR JEWISHNESS DOUBTFUL.DON`T BRING THEM IN UNLESS THEY CONVERT 02:17  |  VOICE of MOSHIACH))) 07/10/07
  6.   #3 and #5 Hannah and Moshiach 03:41  |  hala 07/10/07
  7.   #4, Nemesis 04:35  |  Hannah 07/10/07
  8.   #7..Hannah 05:13  |  Nemesis 07/10/07
  9.   #6, Hala 05:57  |  Hannah 07/10/07
  10.   National crime 07:07  |  Temesgen 07/10/07
  11.   he "drank large amounts of arak" 14:15  |  newageblues 07/10/07
  12.   what a sick setler`s society 14:48  |  nobodysacred 07/10/07
  13.   well said, Hala 16:27  |  newageblues 07/10/07
  14.   #9 Hannah 00:55  |  hala 08/10/07
  15.   # 3 ETHOPIANS NEW COMERS. 12:37  |  petra 21/03/08
  16.   THE MAN WAS AN ARAB `HONOR KILLINGS` OK IN ETHOPIA. 12:39  |  petra 21/03/08
  17.   I want to say hi to my relatives 14:44  |  Fekadu Bogale 07/10/08
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