Roman Zadorov, who was previously convicted of the murder of Tair Rada but was acquitted in a retrial after 15 years in prison, reached a settlement with the state this morning (Thursday).
The settlement approved by the Tel Aviv District Court stipulates that Zadorov will receive an unprecedented compensation amount of NIS 17 million.
This is the largest amount paid to date in Israel to a person who served a long prison term and was later acquitted. Zadorov initially demanded NIS 43 million in compensation, but the parties agreed on a reduced sum.
After the murder of Tair Rada at the Nofei Golan High School in Katzrin in late 2006, Zadorov, then a new immigrant from Ukraine who worked at the school, was arrested.
Zadorov confessed to the police interrogator, but within days he retracted his confession. Despite this, in September 2010 Zadorov was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Thirteen years after the murder, the defense presented an expert opinion stating that the bloodstain found in the bathroom stall where the murder was committed did not belong to Zadorov.
Following the new finding, Judge Hanan Melcer ordered a retrial that began in 2021 at the Nazareth District Court. In March 2023 Zadorov was acquitted, and two months later the prosecution announced it would not appeal his sentence.