STORY: "The Brutal Murder Case That Continues to Haunt Israel," by reporter Itay Stern,published by Haaretz on March 29, 2016.
SUB-HEADING: "The makers of documentary about 13-year-old Tair Rada's
killing 10 years ago tears holes in the judicial system and questions the
murder conviction of Roman Zadorov."
GIST: "In the hours that followed the broadcast of Israeli
documentary series “Shadow of Truth” on Channel 8 television last Saturday, a
trickle began that soon became a flood. Shocked viewers posted comments on
Facebook and a festering Israeli wound had been reopened: the 2006 murder of
Tair Rada and subsequent conviction of Roman Zadorov. Many posters sought
solace in the Facebook discourse after watching the harsh content presented by
the series – one that Mika Timor, 31, Yotam Guendelman, 30, and Ari Pines, 28,
had labored over for the past three years. There were two main reasons for the level of distress:
First, the creators knew how to concoct a spellbinding piece of journalism that
produced more question marks than exclamation points. Thus, they prevented the
viewer from reaching the desired goal of finding the guilty person and instead
left them disturbed and restless. Each time the viewer thought they were about
to receive the solution, another testimony emerged to contradict the previous
one. Second, the documentary’s power was rooted in the testimony
of A.H., which arrived in the fourth and final episode. This seemed to prove
that the Israel Police engaged in especially problematic steps to defend
themselves from external criticism – even if it would lead to the conviction of
a potentially innocent man. This testimony, combined with an impressive
cinematic aesthetic and chilling soundtrack, placed “Shadow of Truth” at the
forefront of recent Israeli documentaries. No fewer than 25 witnesses appear in the series. It starts
with the representative of the prosecution, who justifies the court ruling;
continues with the head of the pathological institute who casts doubt on the
prosecution’s conclusions; and then Rada’s family and other characters, who all
shed light, each in their own way, on this dark and complicated affair. Only
one important voice is missing: that of the police.........Why do you think this story has endured in the public
consciousness for so long? “The fact that a girl [Rada, who was 13 and from the Golan
Heights town of Katzrin] was murdered on a schoolday, within school, within a
locked bathroom, is the nightmare of any parent,” says Timor. “Also, the fact
that there [must be] some definitive truth. Everything here rests on stories.” Zadorov was working at the school at the time and although
he was ultimately convicted of Rada’s murder, much of the evidence used to
convict him has been hotly disputed. “Zadorov’s conviction created a lack of
trust among the public in the legal system,” notes Pines. “You can understand
it from many perspectives. The public understood that there were failures in
this investigation and the [police] efforts were not exhaustive; the public
felt justice had not been served. Indeed, the police declared they had found
the guilty person while Zadorov was still in the school in the middle of his
reenactment [of the crime].”.........“Shadow of Truth” joins the “true crime” genre that has
flourished on American television recently, where filmmakers pick apart crime
stories into tiny details, casting doubt on the reliability – as well as the
moral and legal validity – of the legal system. However, Pines, Guendelman and Timor started work on “Shadow
of Truth” before They say they drew
inspiration from Errol Morris’ classic documentary movie “The Thin Blue Line”
(1988), about a prisoner wrongly convicted of murdering a police officer.........“You watch this series and understand how the system works
and how the police work, and what they do in order to silence any story they’re
not comfortable with,” adds Pines. “There is something terrifying about that.”"
The entire story ca be found at:
See earlier Haaretz story at the link below: "Polygraph Backs Claim of Man Who Says Blood-craving’ Ex-girlfriend Killed Schoolgirl From Golan. Court that convicted another suspect for 2006 murder of Tair Rada didn’t hear this evidence, says TV documentary."
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.711173
See also: Ynet story: "Another boyfriend tells Ynet: Tair Rada murder case should be reopened. In an exclusive Ynet interview, T., another former boyfriend of the woman who allegedly confessed to the murder of the 13-year-old Israeli girl a decade ago, calls for an in-depth reexamination of the allegations."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4786056,00.html
See also: Haaretz: "A Hair's Breadth Away State Prosecutors Decide Not to Investigate a Possible Suspect in Murder of Tair Rada."..."After ten years, with a District Court conviction upheld by the Supreme Court and an endless stream of articles analyzing all the details, one would have expected that questions surrounding the murder of 13-year-old Tair Rada would have subsided by now. However, more questions still linger over the conviction of Roman Zadorov for the crime. Over the years, questions regarding the conduct of police and state prosecutors have only increased. The most recent one relates to DNA tests that were conducted on hairs found in the bathroom stall in which Rada was murdered. It turns out that even though three hairs found there were not the girl’s or Zadorov’s, that when the name of a possible suspect surfaced, a match between her and the hair was not investigated. The suspect is A.K., whose story was told last week in a series called “Shadow of Truth”, which aired on Channel 8. Facing the camera, her ex-partner, A.H., related that several hours after the murder, A.K. told him in detail how she had done it. Six years later he went to the police with the information. The two were questioned in 2012 but prosecutors believed that the man was incriminating A.K. due to a messy separation. DNA tests on A.K. were conducted in order to test whether there was a match with blood found under Rada’s fingernails. However, the blood was Rada’s alone. “Following a request by state prosecutors, the results of the DNA tests were re-examined,” says a document obtained by Haaretz, which was signed by Dr. Mia Freund from the Institute for Forensic Medicine. “This re-examination also failed to find a mixture of profiles, other than the genetic profile of the deceased. There is no indication of another profile that could have originated in foreign material under her nails.” The file also contains additional items that do not fit neither Zadorov’s or Rada’s genetic profiles, including three hairs that were sent for examination to the U.S. in 2007. For unknown reasons, these were not compared to A.K.’s DNA."
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.712291
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.
Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
