Grotius - Center for International Law and Human Rights

10 December 2016

News Update

Rabbinical Misery: The Murder of Tair Rada

 

Today, Grotius - Center for International Law and Human Rights published a report titled “Rabbinical Misery: How Tair Rada was Murdered”. It is a micro analysis of Israeli society through a review of a well publicized murder case in Israel, that of 13 years old girl Tair Rada. Executive Director Marwan Dalal authored the report.

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Time and again children and youth in Israel have been slain generating peculiar criminal trials and convictions. The case of Tair Rada produced another such scenario. Eighth grade student Tair Rada was murdered in the bathroom (shirutim in Hebrew) of her school on 6 December 2006. The murderer cut Rada’s throat with a knife. Subsequently he stabbed her in the neck and caused injuries in her chest, face, and hands.

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Roman Zadorov, a Ukrainian national and resident of Israel without a citizenship status was convicted for murdering Rada and obstructing justice. He was sentenced for life imprisonment.

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Zadarov was 28 years old at the time of the murder, married to an Israeli citizen, and had just fathered his first child. He had no prior criminal convictions or any negative legal involvement. Zadarov worked as a construction laborer at the school the day of the murder, and does not speak Hebrew.

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According to the prosecution’s indictment, Zadarov killed the victim at around 13:30 at the school where he worked, changed his clothes, broke the knife’s blade which he used to execute the murder replacing it with a new one, made and drank coffee at the teachers’ room, and continued working until 17:30. The victim’s body was found between 18:30 and 19:30. 

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Zadarov’s conviction is based on his admission before a police agent inmate as well as before his interrogators who spoke to him in translated Hebrew and Russian. There was no forensic evidence linking Zadarov to the victim or to the scene of the crime. The knife in which he allegedly committed this murder was never found. The District and Supreme Courts could not establish a clear motive on Zadarov’s part for committing this exceptionally brutal crime. They also denied his allegations regarding abusive and aggressive interrogation during which he lost 15 kg (33.5 lbs). There are indications that Zadarove was molested by police officer Yehiel Edri, an act which was not video taped or otherwise documented as required by law. Zadarov admitted of murdering Rada after this encounter. The entire interrogation of Zadarov suffered from significant chronicling deficiencies.

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The report examines three main aspects of this case: 1. the manner in which the interrogators extracted Zadarov’s admission; 2. the discussion of his purported motive; and 3. the analysis of expert opinions pertaining to the type of knife used to kill Rada, her head injuries, and the shoe traces on her clothes as well as at the scene of the crime.

 

For additional information, please contact:

Marwan Dalal, Executive Director