Health Ministry submits DNA evidence in retrial of man convicted of killing girl, 13

Roman Zadorov, convicted for the 2006 murder of Tair Rada, sits in the courtroom of the Supreme Court in Jerusalem on October 20, 2014. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Roman Zadorov, convicted for the 2006 murder of Tair Rada, sits in the courtroom of the Supreme Court in Jerusalem on October 20, 2014. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The Health Ministry announces that the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute has examined a piece of hair found at the site of the murder of a 13-year-old girl 16 years ago, and submitted the findings to a court that is conducting a retrial of the convicted killer.

The ministry says the tests were conducted with advanced technology at the request of the defense and with the approval of the former attorney general Avichai Mandelblit.

The ministry says it cannot divulge the results of the tests due to the ongoing legal proceedings.

However, Hebrew media say it matched the DNA of a man named Adir Habani and not defendant Roman Zadorov, who has always maintained he is not guilty of killing Tair Rada in 2006.

Rada’s murder case has long gripped the country, due both to the brutal way in which she was killed and continuing claims by some that it was not Zadorov who committed the murder.

Rada was found dead in a bathroom stall in her school in Katzrin in the Golan Heights in 2006, with slashes to her neck, stab wounds across her body and severe blows to her head.

His lawyers, along with thousands of vocal members of the public, insist that Zadorov was framed for an act he didn’t commit and that the real murderer was Olga Kravchenko, whose identity was initially gagged by a court order and was referred to as “O.K.”

Habani is the former boyfriend of Kravchenko.

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