Police arrested Avior Sasson, the main suspect in the murder of 19-year-old Benayahu Razi at a short-term rental apartment in Jerusalem, after an intensive nationwide manhunt, authorities said Tuesday.
Sasson was captured while traveling toward Jerusalem in a taxi. Detectives from the Jerusalem District’s central investigative unit intercepted the vehicle in the Harel Tunnel at the entrance to the city, with assistance from the Israel Police aerial unit.
Main suspect in gruesome Jerusalem rental murder arrested in taxi after nationwide manhunt
(Video: Israel Police)
Police said investigators had determined that Sasson hid at several locations in central and northern Israel while on the run.
He was transferred for questioning by the Zion District crime-fighting unit and was expected to appear before the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court for a hearing on extending his detention.
The arrest followed a search that had continued around the clock since Razi was killed on July 11. Jerusalem District Commander Maj. Gen. Avshalom Peled ordered the district’s central investigative unit and all available police resources to join the hunt.
Police had taken the unusual step of publishing Sasson’s name and photograph despite his being 17 at the time, warning that anyone helping him could be investigated for assisting an offender after a crime.
Several people have already been arrested on suspicion of providing Sasson with a support network that allowed him to remain hidden.
Among them are Sasson’s imprisoned brother and a 34-year-old Israel Prison Service officer who allegedly maintained a romantic relationship with him. Investigators suspect the inmate used the officer’s mobile phone to communicate with or assist Sasson during his flight.
The officer is suspected of obstruction of justice and breach of trust. Police have not yet disclosed the full extent of the alleged assistance or whether the phone was used to provide Sasson with instructions, information or resources.
Alleged trap in a Jerusalem apartment
Razi was killed in a short-term rental apartment in Jerusalem’s Nahlaot neighborhood after police say he and a friend were invited there for a meeting with Razi’s former partner, Agam Tzarfi, and her friend Shilat Huta.
Investigators suspect additional people later arrived at the apartment and attacked Razi with knives, clubs and a meat-tenderizing hammer.
Benayahu Razi
Razi’s friend, who said he tried to help him, was lightly wounded and managed to escape.
Police also suspect that the assault was broadcast live to some of the female suspects. All those involved have denied the allegations against them.
Investigators believe Tzarfi, Huta and Mazal Linor Sasson, Avior Sasson’s mother, may have played different roles in planning the meeting, connecting those involved and bringing the alleged attackers to the apartment.
One detainee told investigators that before the group entered the apartment, those involved held what appeared to be a reconciliation meeting that included handshakes and an attempt to settle the conflict.
Aagam Tzarfi
Police are investigating whether the apparent reconciliation was instead part of a trap designed to convince Razi that the dispute had ended.
Razi and Tzarfi had previously been involved in a volatile relationship that included mutual police complaints and restraining orders.
About 10 months before the killing, Razi complained that Tzarfi was harassing and threatening him and had sent men to threaten his life.
His mother, Dikla Razi, later said she had warned police and believed her son’s death could have been prevented had the earlier complaints been treated more seriously.
The investigation remains ongoing as police seek to establish the role of each suspect in planning and carrying out the killing and in allegedly helping Sasson evade arrest afterward.