Israel court acquits man 13 years after murder conviction

An Israeli court on Thursday acquitted a man convicted of murdering a schoolgirl 13 years ago, reigniting mystery around the case that gripped the country.

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

Rada 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. She was 13 years old.

Zdorov, a Ukrainian resident of Israel who had been working in construction at the school, 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 the following year on appeal.

In 2021 the supreme justice 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 the three judges ruling him innocent of Rada's murder.

The judges who acquitted him cited "firm and reasonable doubt" in Zdorov's guilt, and that "the prosecution failed to prove the defendant's guilt", according to the verdict.

Sitting with his wife and son in the courtroom, Zdorov burst into tears when the head of the panel said he was not guilty, freeing him more than 16 years after he was first imprisoned.

In brief remarks to the media after the proceedings ended, Zdorov thanked his supporters.

"The truth has emerged victorious," he said.

Rada's mother, Ilana, who for years had doubted Zdorov's guilt, pointed a finger at the state prosecution, who she claimed built a case around the wrong man.

"For the first time justice has been made," she said of Thursday's ruling.

"The next stage is to start looking for the murderers, and we know where to go," she added, without elaborating.

Zdorov's acquittal generated huge interest in Israel, featuring on the front pages of all the major newspapers and in television broadcasts, with the court providing rare live footage of the session.

The murder and its seemingly endless legal proceedings have gripped Israel for years, with books and films professing Zdorov's innocence or guilt, as many questions surrounding the case remain unresolved.