Police have arrested a suspect in the shooting death of the manager of Haifa's Ashkenazi burial society, who was killed last year in what police say was a feud with another burial society over plots.
Police are holding Itzik Hazan, 49, of Beit Shemesh, on suspicion he shot Benjamin Hesse to death on January 16, 2011. Hazan was arrested on April 17, and is expected to be charged with the killing on Friday.
Police believe that Hazan had been hired by the general manager of the Kurdish burial society, Eli Salman, to kill Hesse, because the two were in a dispute over burial plots. Salman, however, was released to house arrest because there is still not enough evidence against him to indict him.
Hesse, 68 when he was gunned down near his home, had been under threat for several years, after his society had started to keep track of burial plots by computer. This prevented the selling of plots more than once, an arrangement that apparently didn't sit well with his fellow undertakers.
In 2004, unknown people rolled a burning tire to his doorway one night, and two years later someone threw acid at him, injuring one of his eyes.
For over a year after the killing, police had no clues as to who might have shot Hesse. The break in the investigation came in February, when a pistol was found near a mikveh (ritual bath ) in Beit Shemesh. Ballistics tests showed that the pistol had been used in the Haifa shooting, and there was DNA on the gun that led to Hazan, who has previous criminal convictions.
The investigation also showed that Hazan had been at the scene of the crime, and had phoned Hesse's home two weeks before the killing.
Hazan's wife, who was also arrested, told police she had witnessed a meeting at a gas station in Havatzelet Hasharon, during which a cousin of Hazan's gave him NIS 40,000, allegedly as payment for the killing.
Police believe that Hazan agreed to commit the murder because he was mired in debts. But police could discern no motive other than money for Hazan to kill Hesse.
Hazan denies any connection to the killing and said he was shocked at his arrest. His attorneys, Roy Keren and Shahar Hetsrony, said, "We're talking about a series of coincidences and an unfortunate mistake by the police. It's too bad about the dead man, but our client had nothing to do with this."
