Man indicted for setting ex-wife’s car on fire as she sat inside, killing her

State prosecutors indict a 56-year-old man with aggravated murder and arson after he allegedly set his ex-wife’s car on fire with her in it last month, causing her life-threatening wounds to which she eventually succumbed.

Abdelhadi Mahamid, from Arara, is accused of waiting for his ex-wife Anan Jazmawi to finish her shift at the supermarket where she worked in Harish and ambushing her once she entered her car on November 10.

He doused both Jazmawi and the vehicle with gasoline and then set the car alight. She sustained severe burns covering about 98 percent of her body, and was taken to the hospital in critical condition, prosecutors say. She died on November 29 due to the burns and smoke inhalation.

The deceased and the defendant divorced after 14 years of marriage in October this year, after he spent nine months in prison for abusing and threatening her. He continued to threaten her while serving time via phone calls with their 9-year-old daughter, the youngest of three children.

According to prosecutors, the defendant told his daughter over a phone call to pass on a message to her mother: “Tell her that because she put me in jail, I’ll get out and kill her, and she’ll die because I sat in jail.”

Days after he was freed from prison the defendant came to Jazmawi’s home and asked to see their daughter. When his ex-wife refused to open her door and said the daughter was sleeping, he knocked loudly, yelled, cursed and threatened to mangle his ex-wife’s face. It was then that he decided to acquire gasoline and began plotting to kill Jazmawi by setting her on fire, prosecutors say.

Prosecutors charge Mahamid in the Haifa District Court with aggravated murder, arson and making threats, and request he remain in custody until the end of legal proceedings against him.