Brother of lesbian Druze teen, 2 others charged with her murder
Police accuse Sa’id Ahmad of hiring gunmen to kill his sister Sarit, who was shot dead a month after filing a fresh complaint against him for death threats
Law enforcement on Sunday announced charges against the brother of a Druze teenager and two others he allegedly contracted to kill his sister over her sexual orientation.
Sarit Ahmad, 18, was shot dead in June outside her family’s northern hometown of Kisra-Summi in an incident that police suspect was linked to her lesbian identity. The killing followed relentless death threats from her brothers, for which they were briefly imprisoned after she filed a police complaint against them.
A month before the shooting, Ahmad filed another complaint against her brother Sa’id Ahmad, 29, who is accused of hiring Shfaram residents Hisham Mraihi and Shadi Abu Saraya, both 39, to kill her. The three, whose names had been barred from publication following their arrests last month, are accused of aggravated murder, weapons offenses, arson and obstruction of justice.
Following the latest complaint, police said they helped arrange for Ahmad to live at a women’s shelter in southern Israel, but she ultimately decided against doing so and arranged to live with her sister in the north.
Shortly before her killing on June 6, Ahmad informed a friend that her brother had offered to get her a new car, telling her to meet him at a car dealership in Kisra-Summi and that he would arrive after her, according to a police statement.
“Sarit was surprised by his kindness and set out driving, but a few minutes later she was murdered,” the statement said. Her car was rammed, after which she was gunned down while trying to escape on foot, the statement added.
The accused gunmen, Mraihi and Abu Saraya, allegedly torched the car they used and switched to a getaway vehicle. Police said the two were arrested while trying to flee Israel, with one nabbed at Ben Gurion Airport and the other while trying to escape to a Palestinian town in the West Bank.
Prosecutors file the indictments Sunday against the trio at the Haifa Magistrate’s Court.
