Israel court acquits man 13 years after murder conviction

An Israeli court on Thursday acquitted a man convicted of murdering a schoolgirl in 2006, with her mother vowing to find the real killer in the case that gripped the country. The verdict reignited the mystery around the case that inspired conspiracy theories, books and movies, including a documentary that aired on Netflix.

“The Nazareth district court today acquitted … defendant Roman Zdorov of the murder of Tair Rada,” the court said in a statement.

Rada, 13, was found with a slit throat and in a pool of blood in a bathroom stall of her high school in Katzrin, a town in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, in December 2006.

Zdorov, a Ukrainian resident of Israel, was arrested days after, and charged at the same Nazareth court based on evidence and a confession he later retracted. He was convicted in 2010 and sentenced to life in prison.

Expert opinion on the knife used saw the supreme court order a retrial, and in 2014 the Nazareth district court once again found him guilty, a ruling the supreme court upheld.

In 2021 a supreme court judge granted Zdorov the right to another retrial at the Nazareth district court, releasing him to house arrest for the duration of the process that ended Thursday with two of three judges ruling him innocent of Rada’s murder.