Palestinian charged in murder of Jewish cabbie
Indictment says Ahmed Totaki Abu Hanini, who last May boarded Gregory Rabinowitz's cab with two more West Bank residents, strangled the Israeli driver to death after he was beaten and robbed
An indictment was filed with the Petah Tikva District Court on Thursday against Ahmed Totaki Abu Hanini for the murder of 56-year-old Gregory Rabinowitz, a taxi driver from Ashdod found dead near Gan Yavne last May.
Hanini (30), from the village of Arana, north of Jenin, is accused of strangling Rabinowitz to death.
Last month indictments were filed against Mahmoud Ouda and Muhammad Khaledi, who are also from Arana, for murdering Rabinowitz. Abu Hanini, who was arrested about a week ago, was added to the revised indictment, filed Thursday.
The prosecution claims that the three murdered the cab driver out of nationalistic motives. During his interrogation, Khaledi admitted he planned to kidnap an Israeli in order to use him as leverage in the event of his arrest.
According to the revised indictment, the three planned to rob Israeli cab drivers. They arrived in Ashdod on May 10. At nightfall the three boarded Rabinowitz's cab. Ouda, who speaks Hebrew, sat next the driver. The initial plan called for Khaledi and Hanini to grab Rabinowitz from behind while Ouda took his money, after which Hanini was supposed to get out of the cab and make sure Rabinowitz did not escape.
However, the plan went awry, and the driver was murdered.
During the drive to Gan Yavne, the indictment said, the three directed Rabinowitz to a dirt road. Khaledi then grabbed Rabinowitz's arms, while Ouda slapped him and took NIS 800 (about $211) from his pocket. He also stole the driver's cell phone. Meanwhile, Khaledi began beating the driver. The three then pulled Rabinowitz to the back seat and tied his arms and legs with Khaledi's shoelaces. After placing him in the trunk, Khaledi took the wheel. He stopped the car when Rabinowitz regained consciousness and attempted to free himself.
The assailants then removed Rabinowitz from the trunk and decided to murder him as revenge for the death of Khaledi's cousin, an Islamic Jihad gunman who was killed by IDF forces in February 2007.
The indictment accuses Ouda of then attempting to choke him with a shoelace while one of his accomplices stuffed a rag in his mouth. The body was then covered with branches and cardboard boxes and left there.
Rabinowitz was then rolled onto his back, at which point Hanini strangled him to death with his bare hands, the indictment says.
