The police arrested an Arab criminal from Ramla this week on suspicion of murdering his neighbor, Refael Mizrahi, a 60-year-old Chabad hassid from the city about a year ago.
According to a report by Hakol Hayehudi, the suspect has a criminal record in the field of extortion and connections to crime families.
The suspect was initially arrested near the scene of the crime but was released due to a lack of evidence. Now, due to a new report by the Institute of Forensic Medicine, the police decided to rearrest the suspect on an alleged connection to the murder.
The incident occurred on a Friday night approximately a year ago. Mizrahi reported to the police that he was assaulted, and the forces that arrived evacuated him with injuries and bruises. During the evacuation, the victim collapsed, and he was pronounced dead a short time later.
The police arrested the victim's neighbor, who, according to the report, claimed that he was sitting and smoking in the stairwell when a cup of liquid was poured on him from upstairs. According to the report, he went up to Mizrahi’s apartment and knocked on the door. Mizrahi, who was ill and used a cane to walk, allegedly opened the door with a spike, threw a scooter at him, and chased him until he retreated into his apartment.
Mizrahi's family claims that stab wounds were found on his body. They added that the victim told them in the past that his Arab neighbors would repeatedly verbally abuse him on nationalist grounds, leading them to believe that the murder was nationalistically motivated.