Undated photo of Margarita Levy (Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
The Beersheba District Court has convicted Sami Abu Al-Asal of murdering Margarita Levy, 21 years after the killing took place.
Abu Al-Asal, 51, a resident of Jaffa, was convicted under a plea deal and sentenced to 23 years behind bars for the 2003 murder of Levy, 21, in Eilat, where she’d gone to work as a waitress before planning to start university studies in Jerusalem.
Four days after she arrived in Eilat the two met and Al-Asal assaulted her, beat her on the head, face and upper body, and then stabbed her in the chest, prosecutors say. He then dumped her body in a city park.
The case remained unsolved for two decades, until new forensic methods were applied in 2022 to samples taken from the site where Levy’s body was found, and the DNA evidence was linked to Al-Asal.
Murder and rape suspect Sami Abu Al-Asal, left, in 2023, and right in 2002. (Israel Police)
An undercover investigation was opened and in May 2023 and Al-Asal was arrested.
Al-Asal was also accused of sexually assaulting Levy before murdering her, but issues with the evidence led to those charges being removed from the final conviction.
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From the Liveblog of
Thursday, June 27, 2024
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