Six, including four minors, charged with murdering teen in a Jerusalem Airbnb

Prosecutors on Friday charged two adults and four minors with premeditated murder in the killing of 19-year-old Benayahu Razi in the Nachlaot neighborhood of Jerusalem last month.

An indictment was filed at the Jerusalem District Court against 19-year-old Agam Tsarafi, 20-year-old Shilat Houta and four minors, over the killing inside a rented Airbnb.

Another woman, 46-year-old Jerusalem resident Linor Sasson, was charged with obstruction of justice for helping the four minors flee after they allegedly stabbed and beat Razi and a male friend of his with knives, brass knuckles, a club and a kitchen mallet.

Police requested that the court keep all seven suspects in custody until the end of the legal proceedings. The minors, aged 15-17, were not named in accordance with Israeli privacy law.

According to prosecutors, Tsarafi and Houta had rented the apartment for the weekend and invited Razi and his friend to join. Tsarafi and Razi, according the indictment, were in a romantic relationship.

Tsarafi and Houta left the apartment in the afternoon of July 11 following an argument with Razi and his friend, and made their way to Sasson’s home, where they recounted the argument to the four minors and alleged that Razi had been violent, according to the indictment.

Tsarafi, Houta and the four minors then jointly decided to “finish” Razi, and Sasson drove the six murder suspects to the Airbnb apartment while Houta threatened Razi and the unnamed friend and demanded they exit, according to the indictment.

Upon arrival, the suspects found Razi and his friend outside the apartment, and the four minors coaxed the two victims to go back inside for a conversation, the prosecutors charged.

Once inside, they allegedly cornered Razi and attacked him, and also wounded the friend when he came to Razi’s defense. Houta stood in the doorway and broadcast the violence to Tsarafi via video call, prosecutors said.

תיעוד: החשודים ברגעים שלפני הרצח של בניהו רזי בנחלאות

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After the attack, Sasson allegedly helped all six suspects flee the scene.

She drove Houta and Tsarafi to Jerusalem’s Malha neighborhood, near the home of Tsarafi’s sister, and then drove with the four suspects in the direction of Jerusalem’s Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood, dropping off one of the minors on the way in a location unknown to prosecutors, according to the indictment.

Sasson and the remaining three minors were arrested en route, while the other minor managed to evade arrest for some two weeks.

Responding to the indictment, lawyers representing one of the minors rejected the charge of premeditated murder, arguing that the indictment itself revealed “a picture of an unplanned and developing incident that ended in tragedy.”

Their client “denies that he directly caused Benayahu’s death,” said attorneys Idan Gamliel and Ofer Erlich.

Defendant says she’s being treated like a Hamas fighter

Amid the proceedings, Sasson asserted that the Israel Prison Service was “treating us [the defendants] like nukhbot” – a reference to the Hamas fighters who invaded Israel on October 7, 2023.

Dikla Benayahu, the victim’s mother, said she was “shocked” by the attitude and requests of some of the defendants, telling media: “Their conditions aren’t pleasant for them – maybe they thought they’d go to a hotel after they murdered my son.”

Benayahu insisted that Sasson be kept behind bars for the duration of the legal proceedings.

“She has a criminal organization, and agents everywhere,” the mother said. “If they release her, we – the family – will feel that we’re under threat.”

According to Hebrew media reports, Sasson is indeed a known criminal, and recently served a 21-month sentence after being convicted of fraud and extortion for her involvement in a high-interest loan scheme.

The mother took issue with other defendants’ families as well, alleging to press that the grandmother of one of the minors looked her in the eye and called her late son a “dog.”

“She told me: ‘You think you’re a celebrity.’ I wish I could have remained anonymous,” Dikla Razi continued.

“[Benayahu] is underground, and they want better conditions. They should rot in jail and never see the light of day,” she said.