Indictment: Murdered his daughters, fled from home
Strenuous custody battles, violent disputes with wife reportedly led Ali Amtirat to murder his two young daughters. He is also accused of kidnapping, assaulting nephew
Ali Amtirat, 40, a resident of Al Furah, was charged Monday in the murder of his two daughters,
four-year-old Asinad and two-year-old Rimas. According to the indictment filed to the Beersheba
Magistrate's Court, Amtirat was motivated by custody struggles with his wife, Abir Dandis, from whom he was separated.
A violent relationship between Dandis and Amtirat led to the latter leaving the Bedouin village of al-Fura with the two young girls. Following the move, the dispute between the two exacerbated, leading, ostensibly, to the double homicide.
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The defendant called Dandis' brother, threatening to murder the girls if he and Dandis would not reach an agreement. Amtirat allegedly threatened that blood will be shed following his suspicions that his wife was having an affair; he also threatened to murder Dandis herself, and told her he would not grant her a divorce.
In the middle of May, the indictment claims, Amtirat called Dandis' brother and told him that Dandis must not see the girls. In another incident he threatened his 11-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, telling her he had prepared a grave for her and her sisters.
According to the indictment, Amtirat decided to murder the girls, and took them to his home. He strangled them, then hanged them from the ceiling of the house and fled. His ex-wife noticed the darkened house and asked her son to check on the girls; it was him who found the young girls hung, laid them on the ground, and called for his uncle.
For 40 days Amtirat was able to dodge police, assisted by two of his brothers. He was found in the Dead Sea area, on the roof of an abandoned structure. Amtirat denied the murders but ostensibly said to police that his children are his business and that he should be killed because he has killed.
Asinad (R) and Rimas Dandis (Family photo)
The persecution charges Amtirat's brothers, Ahmed and Ali, with conspiracy and with several accusations of abduction and blackmail. Amtirat is also accused of kidnapping and assaulting his nephew after the latter assisted Dandis in seeing her daughters.
Amtirat's attorney, public defender Tomer Orinov, said that the police's case is weak and that evidence was taken out of context.
Chief of Arad police, his deputy and another officer were impeached after it was revealed the police neglected to inspect a complaint placed by the girls' mother a day before the murder. A few weeks earlier, Dandis claimed that the police was once again negligent when it failed to arrest the defendant after she reported his location.
Dandis has said that the Arad police are accomplices to the murder, and that she is considering filing a complaint against them due to their remiss behavior.
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