Supreme Court rejects appeal of man convicted of brutally attempting to murder wife
Judges highlight violence of Aviad Moshe’s assault on his then-spouse Shira Isakov, hitting her with a rolling pin, stabbing her and strangling her in front of their toddler son
The Supreme Court on Sunday rejected an appeal by a man convicted of attempting to murder his wife by beating, stabbing, and strangling her in front of the toddler son.
Aviad Moshe was sentenced to 23 years in prison for stabbing his then-wife Shira Isakov 20 times, hitting her with a rolling pin and strangling her on the eve of the Rosh Hashanah holiday on September 18, 2020, in their home in the southern town of Mitzpe Ramon.
In a legal precedent, he was also charged with abusing the couple’s infant son, then a year and a half old, by attacking the boy’s mother in front of him.
Isakov has since become a champion of awareness for domestic violence.
The Supreme Court unanimously turned down an appeal from Moshe against his sentence as well as a request by his defense team to present new evidence based on a psychological assessment of his state of mind.
It also rejected his appeal against the precedent-setting conviction of child abuse for carrying out the attack in front of his son.
Presiding Justice Yosef Elron wrote that he had listened to a recording to the attack and “the sound of the rolling pin hitting the complainant’s skull and other parts of her body can is still in my ears as if they had been fixed in them ever since.
“The sounds of the blows, the cries of the complainant and the cries of the child standing helpless… while she asks for his mercy, and he continues his actions mercilessly… I can’t recall documentation of an attack so violent, so prolonged, so cruel,” Elron added.
Isakov was critically injured in the assault and underwent emergency surgery at Beersheba’s Soroka Medical Center. Since then she has undergone multiple procedures to rebuild her face. The couple later divorced.
Moshe had recorded the attack, apparently while trying to record a preceding conversation with Isakov who he claimed had provoked him into a rage.
In the recording Isakov could reportedly be heard pleading with Moshe “not the knife, not the knife.”
Regarding the conviction of abusing his son, the court found that “his [Moshe’s] choice not to cease what he was doing or to keep the child away from the scene forced him to be part of the event itself.”
Moshe previously admitted that he had assaulted Isakov, but claimed that he did not intend to kill her. He said she had provoked him, causing him to lose control and attack her.
In June 2021, police handed over evidence to prosecutors that Moshe had made additional threats from prison, telling his parents that he wanted another prisoner to use his ties to the criminal underworld to threaten Isakov, or even harm her.
Isakov has been lauded for her efforts to raise awareness of domestic violence.
She and a neighbor who saved her during her husband’s attack were both honored in April 2021 at the official torch-lighting ceremony held annually at the start of Independence Day.
