Suspicion: Prisoner on leave involved in murder of sister

Few hours after Muna Mahjana, 29, found dead in her apartment, police arrest her brother, who was on leave from prison while murder occurred; victim was 'involved in family disputes,' relative says

Hassan Shaalan|Published: 04.28.13 , 23:32

Police arrested the brother of Muna Mahjana, 29, who was murdered Sunday, under suspicion of involvement in the murder. The brother, a prisoner, was on leave Sunday and will be brought before the Haifa Magistrates Court on Monday for a remand hearing.

The suspect is serving a prison sentence for possession and use of a weapon.

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One of Muna's brothers told Ynet that he preferred not to discuss his sister's murder and insisted that "We don’t know who killed her and why. Despite the arrest, my brother had nothing to do with the incident."

Another relative of the victim said that "she's been having problems and was in an anguished mental state. She was involved in family disputes. Unfortunately she was victim of a dispute that ended with murder."

According to her Umm al-Fahm landlord, "She's been living in the apartment for about a month and I know that she got married two-and-a-half months ago. Her husband was at the apartment only four or five times.

"In 2006," the landlord told Ynet, I leased the same apartment to her ex-husband and after a year they moved back into his house."

Mahjana's body was found Sunday at her apartment with gunshot wounds. One of the neighbors said that one of her children, a three-year-old boy, had been sleeping next to his mother and she was probably murdered in his presence.

In the morning, the neighbor recounted, the child went outside to play, and when people saw bloodstains on his clothes, they went into the house and found the mother dead.

Mahjana had three children, two of whom were in the custody of her ex-husband, their father. All three children were referred to social services.