Police crack 11-year-old rape case using DNA evidence, charge suspect

Authorities said Thursday they had solved an 11-year-old rape case, indicting an already jailed man in the assault with the help of DNA evidence.

Police and prosecution officials said a test of genetic material had identified 38-year-old Sliman Sliman as the culprit in the rape of a 25-year-old woman in an olive grove near the towns of Mashhad and Nof Hagalil in northern Israel.

Prosecutors said the rape took place in July 2009, when the victim, a resident of Nof Hagalil (then called Nazareth Illit) was dropped off by a friend on a road between the two adjacent towns in the early morning hours and began walking toward her home. She was then approached by Sliman, a resident of Mashhad, who began walking alongside her and attempted to converse with her.

The indictment said that when the two passed by an olive grove Sliman caught the woman by her hand and hair and dragged her into the grove, as she cried and pleaded to be let go.

Sliman claimed he had a knife and gun and, ordering her to undress, warned he would kill her if she didn’t comply. He then raped her and left her in the grove.

Though the victim immediately filed a police complaint and investigators probed the case and various pieces of evidence at the scene of the crime, they were never able to track down the assailant or find matches for the DNA evidence he left.

Then in February of this year, Sliman, serving prison time for unrelated offenses, gave a DNA sample that came up as a match for that of the rapist. Further tests confirmed a perfect match between samples.

Sliman has denied the charges against him.