Congolese worker indicted in Netanya murder
Aritzia Akalsongo, 30, allegedly suffocated Zahava Chekul to death last month after she asked him to repay money he owed her
Aaron Kalman is a former writer and breaking news editor for the Times of Israel
The state prosecution on Monday indicted a Congolese laborer for the murder of an 18-year-old Israeli woman in a Netanya hotel in March.
According to the charges, Aritzia Akalsongo, 30, suffocated Zahava Chekul and then threw her body out of the window.
Police also requested that the court allow them to take a deposition from the resident of the hotel suite where Chekul was killed, a foreign soccer player on Netanya’s team, since he plans to leave Israel when the soccer season ends in May.
He and Akalsongo were arrested shortly after Chekul’s body was found. The soccer player was let go, and the Congolese suspect later confessed to the act.
Chekul and Akalsongo had met a few times, the indictment said. During their last meeting, she told him to repay NIS 200 ($55) that he owed her. When he said he didn’t have the money, she threatened to shout and say he raped her.
According to police, it was then that he choked her with one hand and slapped her with the other. When he realized she was no longer breathing, he opened the window and threw her out to the street.
Chekul’s body was found outside the room, where the two men had spent the night. According to hotel employees who arrived at the scene, the upper half of the woman’s body was exposed and severely bruised.
The soccer player’s name was not made public. Akalsongo said he had not intended to kill her.
The soccer player said during the interrogation that he first saw Chekul some 24 hours prior to her death.
“She came into to my hotel room without ringing. I was in the middle of a Skype conversation with my wife, who is abroad. My wife asked me, ‘Who is that?’ and raised a ruckus because she thought the girl was with me. I told her to get out of the room, and go to my friend, who was not present. My friend lives with me as he has no place to go to and I helped him out,” the player testified.
Adiv Sterman and Philip Podolsky contributed to this report.
