Gregory Rabinowitz
Photo: Gadi Kabalo
IDF arrests 3rd suspect in cabbie murder
Ahmed Totaki accused along with two others of choking Ashdod taxi driver Gregory Rabinowitz to death in May 2008
The IDF and Shin Bet have arrested a suspect in the murder
of Gregory Rabinowitz, a taxi driver from Ashdod found dead near Gan Yavne last May, a court cleared for publication Wednesday.
The suspect, Ahmed Totaki Abu Hanini, was arrested Monday in the village of Arana, north of Jenin. Two other residents of the village, Mahmoud Ouda and Muhammad Khaledi, were arrested a few weeks earlier.
One of the suspects has admitted he planned to kidnap an Israeli in order to use him as leverage in the event of his arrest.
Rabinowitz's body was found in May, two days after his disappearance. According to an indictment filed last month the three suspects got into his cab in Ashdod and asked to be driven to Gan Yavne. Upon arriving in town they directed him to a dirt path and attacked him, causing him to lose consciousness. They then tied him up, placed him in the trunk, and began driving.
But Rabinowitz regained consciousness and attempted to free himself, at which point the three stopped the car and removed him from the trunk. The indictment accuses Ouda of then attempting to choke him with a shoelace while one of his accomplices stuffed a rag in his mouth.
Rabinowitz was then rolled onto his back, at which point one of the suspects choked him to death with his bare hands, the indictment says. The body was then covered with branches and cardboard boxes and left there.
Ouda and Khaledi have recounted the murder, explaining that they desired vengeance for a family member who belonged to Islamic Jihad and was killed in 2007 by authorities attempting to arrest him.
