Wronged? Muhammad Sabihi
צילום: אורלי זיילר
Public Defender seeks to retrial '82 murder of Daphna Carmon
Four men convicted of abduction, rape, murder of 19-year-old soldier said to prepare motion for new trial, claiming original confessions coerced
Twenty six years after being convicted for the gruesome rape and murder of 19-year-old IDF soldier Daphna Carmon, brothers Kamal and Muhammad Sabihi are planning to appeal their conviction and file a motion for a new trial.
The Public Defender's Office, which represents the two, claimed Monday that new evidence which suggest that police investigators may have overstepped their authority, have been brought to its attention.
Daphna Carmon went missing on June 11, 1982. Three weeks after her disappearance, a shepherd found her remains near the Usefia Junction, in northern Israel.
The police struggled with the case, which took a surprising turn when Ahmed Kousli, one of the men suspected of murdering 14-year-old Danny Katz, offered information on Carmon's murder in exchanged for becoming a State witness.
The information he gave the police led to the arrest of the Sabihi brothers and their cousin Atef Sabihi.
In 1987, the Haifa District Court found Ahmed Kousli, Atef Sabihi, Kamal Sabihi and Muhammad Sabihi guilty of the abduction, rape and murder of Carmon, and sentenced them to two consecutive life terms.
Case of misidentification?
They appealed their conviction, claiming the confessions were coerced and the reenactment of the crime directed, but the Supreme Court rejected their appeal. A second appeal was filed in 1999, which was denied yet again.The Public Defender's Office has been privy to several claims made over the past few years, suggesting that Carmon's real killers are still at large.
Source in the Defender's Office have been quoted as saying the case was riddled with inconsistencies from day one, as any case based solely on the defendants' confessions must be doubly scrutinized.
Moreover, a legal source said that prior to obtaining the confessions, an additional man – believed unrelated to the case – confessed to the murder, but was later found to be mentally unstable.
"The four's recollection of the events is remarkably similar to the fifth man's testimony. Surely that requires further investigation," said the source.
According to the Public Defender's Office, while the matter of the four is being thoroughly investigated, a petition for a retrial is still months away.
