Farkhan. Asked to leave courthouse
צילום: חגי אהרון
Girlfriend of Dana Bennett's alleged murderer testifies
'We picked her up and I understood this was the end of her,' said Y., Yihya Farkhan's ex-girlfriend convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison for aiding and abetting in murder of Dana Bennett. During testimony, Farkhan yelled at her to 'stop lying.' Bennett's mother, Farkhan's brother clash outside courtroom. Brother: Give him death sentence if guilty
Dispassionately, as if watching a movie, Y., Yihya Adwan Farkhan's ex-girlfriend convicted of aiding and abetting him in the murder of Dana Bennet and Czech tourist Sylvia Molrova, laid out her relationship with Farkhan, which ended in an inconceivable killing spree, on the witness stand Wednesday.
Y. described how they picked up Bennett under the pretext that they own a hotel and needed a chambermaid. She then told how they brutally murdered her in Wadi Hamam and burned her corpse. "When we picked her up in the car, I understood that this was the end of her, that he would kill her," said Y.
Y. testified in the Nazareth District Court for the prosecution in the case against Farkhan, who is also charged in a third murder of a cellmate in Tiberius jail. During the heated hearing, Farkhan lashed out at Y. and shouted: "Stop lying already."
Y. on the witness stand (Photo: Hagai Aharon)
The ex-girlfriend, sentenced Tuesday to 14 years in prison as part of a plea bargain in which she was convicted of aiding two murders, was the object of Fakhan's loud shouting in the courtroom. "She's a liar, and you are hearing her lies." Farkhan was subsequently taken out of the courtroom after he continued swearing.
Before the hearing, Y. told Ynet, "It won't be hard for me. I'm not scared. I will say everything I said to the police." Indeed, despite Farkhan's outbursts, she continued to testify without any misgivings for hours, revealing more and more horrific details of the two murderers she was a part of when she was just 15 years old.
Murder of the tourist: 'This one is going to die'
This is how Y. described the night Molrova was murdered: "He called me in the middle of the night, around 3 or 4 am, and told me, 'Get dressed in dark clothing, pull back your hair, put on sneakers, and come down.' I asked why. Adwan responded, 'No questions.'"
The two started traveling as Adwan asked Y. if she knew of a nearby body of water. "We drove and I saw a large lake, and I said to him, 'Maybe here.' He told me, 'No, I need a place quick, before the sun come up.' He motioned with his hand, 'This one is going like this.'" When asked by the judges what she meant, she said, "This one is going to die."
Y. added, "I was afraid he would kill me along with her. I was afraid that was the end of me."
She described how they reached the area near Nahal Zalmon, how Farkhan picked up Molrova like a sack and she yelled, "Ow. What did you do to me, ow. My head. I want to go home."
Y. also described how Molrova managed to wriggle out of his hands: "She ran crooked. I saw him run after her. He grabbed her by the hair and dragged her back to the water." Afterwards, Y. testified, he strangled her. As she continued to convulse, he asked Y. to stand on her legs while he stood on her head.
When asked by the judges why he murdered her, Y. responded, "After a while, I understood that it's revenge. He told me she was his girlfriend and said, 'When I want to get someone, you see his end. This one made a mistake with me and complained that I raped her. Your death will be much worse. I will cut you.'"
Bennett murder: 'Like a horror film'
At this point in the hearing, there was a short recess. Outside the courtroom, a confrontation broke out between Vicky Bennett, Dana's mother, and Farkhan's brother. Bennett lashed out at the brother, Ziyad: "Do you have any doubt that your brother committed murder? Do you have any doubt?"
The brother responded: "Let's wait for the trial. Believe me, the truth will come out. I am a father, and you are a mother. He doesn't interest me like the truth interests me. If it is proven (that he murdered), he must be given the death sentence, and I will establish an organization for this end. But I am waiting for the truth."
Farkhan in court on Wednesday (Photo: Hagai Aharon)
Bennett's mother, who collapsed in the courtroom, said later that Y.'s testimony only supported her claim that the alleged killer's ex-girlfriend "is a murderer, not an accomplice to murder".
The mother said, "I took into account that this may be one of the most difficult days for me, and that is why I left the courtroom when she began recounting Dana's murder. I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle it."
Upon returning from recess, Y. continued on to describe Bennett's murder. She described how Bennett got out of a taxi and how Farkhan asked her to approach her to tell her they needed a chambermaid for their hotel.
"I smiled at her and said, 'Hi. I'm looking for a girl to work as a chambermaid. This is the owner. You will be paid NIS 500 (about $135).'"
Y. described how they drove together towards Wadi Hamam, but stopped first at a gas station in Migdal.
"Dana started growing suspicious. She saw that everything is dark and asked why there wasn't any light. He said, 'There's a power outage.'" She also said that Adwan stopped the car after Dana asked if he was really going to pay her and gave Dana NIS 600 (about $160) in order to allay her concerns. At this stage, Y. said, Dana broke out in tears.
Y. said that Bennett, who feared for her life, said to Farkhan, "'I will give you everything you want, whatever you want from me. Don't do anything to me.' He answered her: 'I don't want anything from you.'" What happened at this point, Y. described: "I heard a scream, and then I heard what sounded like a body falling on the ground."
Y. continued and described how Farkhan lit a lighter and asked her to come see Dana's face, which was smeared with blood. "I saw what looked like a horror movie. I don't know what he did to her face."
After this, Y. recounted how Farkhan strangled her with her bra and asked Y. to help him drag her to a wrecked ice cream truck in the field. The two collected weeds, with which they then covered over the corpse. Later, they rode to the gas station in Migdal, purchased benzene, and returned to the scene.
"He sprayed it on her furiously, lit the lighter, and set fire to the weeds," she said. "When he saw that it caught fire, he said 'Let's go.' When we got back to the car, he said to me in a panic, 'What about her bra? Go check.' I got out, bent down, and looked. It frightened me to see her face, the blood and the flames."
'He would look for the girls who hitchhike'
After the murder, Y. testified, the two of them went to Farkhan's sister's house in Wadi Hamam. "Our clothes were full of blood, and our hands, too. He asked his sister to prepare a bucket with vinegar so that we could take off our shoes and wash them."
When the judges as Y. what she thought when Dana got in the car, she said, "I knew this was the end of her, that he would kill her. He would look for people to trap on Fridays and Saturdays. He would tell me that he searches for the girls looking for a ride. He used to like making these murders, killing them. He said that he doesn't like Jews."
Y. said that when Farkhan was arrested after the Bennett murder, he called her from prison and told her he hanged a man (referring to the murder of his cellmate). "I am saying this in my words, but we had codes. He said that he called some person and told him there was a problem with the electricity in the light fixture. He made up something for him, and then moved the chair. The person was hanged. He told me this in clues, so people wouldn't understand."
At the end of the prosecution's questioning, Y. was asked why it took her six years before coming forward. "I wasn't waiting," she responded. "It was so many years behind me. I didn't feel like I have a part in it. I felt like it was him. I didn't feel guilty. In my thoughts, I felt that if I go to the police station in Tiberias, they wouldn't believe me.
"He always said to me, 'I can get out of anything,' so if I told, he would get out of it and would go after me. Because he always said: 'Only me and God above know.'"
At the start of the proceedings, Y., who was a minor at the time, was indicted for the murder of Bennett and aiding the murder of Czech tourist, Silvia Molrova. However, a plea bargain was made in which she was convicted of aiding murder in both cases.
In the verdict, judges Nehama Munitz, Shaher Atrash and Atef Ilabouni wrote: "Despite being a 15-year-old young woman, the defendant assisted Adwan in the execution of two atrocious murders. The defendant's actions enabled Adwan to commit the murders."
