Three men were indicted on Thursday over the killing of a key prosecution witness and a private investigator in Bukata in the northern Golan Heights in June, with prosecutors alleging that the witness was deliberately murdered to prevent him from testifying in an ongoing extortion case.
The State Attorney’s Office charged Said Madaah, 28, Ronen Araida, 19, and Aiman Ibrahim, 43, with two counts of aggravated murder over the June 19 deaths of Marwan Abu Shahin and Saada Saada. The indictment alleges that the three planned the attack, waited for Abu Shahin near his home, and shot the two men at close range as they sat inside a vehicle.
What makes the case unusual is the prosecution’s allegation that Abu Shahin was killed specifically because he was expected to testify. His killing was charged under a provision of Israel’s aggravated-murder law, which applies when a witness or a prospective witness is killed to prevent or obstruct a criminal investigation or court proceeding.
The prosecution said this was the first time prosecutors had invoked that particular circumstance since Israel’s homicide offenses were overhauled in 2019. The offense of aggravated murder is the most serious level of homicide under the reformed law, and ordinarily carries a mandatory life sentence subject to a narrow statutory exception in exceptional circumstances.
Both killings were charged as aggravated murder on the grounds that they were allegedly planned in advance. Abu Shahin’s killing is additionally charged under the provision concerning the murder of a witness to obstruct judicial proceedings.
The indictment describes Abu Shahin, a contractor from Bukata, as the central prosecution witness in two criminal cases against 10 people accused of extortion, threats, and firearms offenses.
Prosecutors allege that members of the group had extracted hundreds of thousands of shekels from Abu Shahin and opened fire on his home after he stopped paying them. Earlier reports similarly identified him as a prosecution witness in an extortion case; one of the defendants in those earlier extortion cases, according to Thursday’s indictment, is Nasib Madaah, the brother of Said Madaah, one of the three defendants in the case.
Abu Shahin murdered to prevent his testimony, prosecutors allege
Prosecutors allege that the three men decided to kill Abu Shahin to prevent him from taking the stand and made preparations days in advance. The indictment says Madaah arrived in Bukata several days beforehand, stayed in vacation cabins under false names, and moved around the area. The other two later joined him using vehicles they acquired shortly before.
On the morning of June 19, Saada met Abu Shahin and the two later drove together toward Abu Shahin’s home, according to the indictment. Prosecutors say the defendants followed their vehicle and, shortly after noon, one of the three ran up to the driver’s side and fired approximately seven shots at close range while Abu Shahin and Saada remained inside. Both men were killed during the shooting.
The indictment describes Saada as a private investigator from Hurfeish, a Druze town in the upper Galilee, who had met Abu Shahin as part of his work concerning a traffic accident involving a vehicle belonging to Abu Shahin’s family. Prosecutors say he had no connection to the extortion cases and was with Abu Shahin when the shooting occurred only because of that separate case.
Araida is also charged separately over a July 5 shooting at a shawarma restaurant in Yarka.
Araida arrested after shooting victim, firing towards police officer
According to the indictment, Araida arrived at the restaurant armed and wearing a helmet and gloves, asked the owner’s nephew to call him out, and then fired three shots into the owner’s lower body, seriously wounding him. Prosecutors allege that Araida fled toward a nearby grove and fired another shot at a police officer who pursued him before changing clothes he had prepared in advance. He was arrested shortly afterward. This matches media reports from that incident.
In a separate request filed with the indictment, prosecutors asked the court to keep all three defendants in custody until the end of the proceedings. The state said its evidence includes security-camera footage, forensic findings including fingerprints and DNA, cellphone material, witness statements, and other investigative records.