The police say they have solved the murder of Judge Adi Azar. Azar was killed four months ago by gunfire from close range as he sat in his car near his Ramat Hasharon home. The Tel Aviv Magistrates Court has allowed it to be reported that Azar was murdered at the instigation of Yitzhak Zoziashvili, a prisoner who is already serving a life sentence for murder. Another life-sentence prisoner, Rafi Nahmani, is suspected of having carried out the murder, with the aid of two released prisoners.
It is alleged that Zoziashvili wanted to murder Azar as revenge against the criminal justice system. He had requested a retrial of his case.
According to the police, Zoziashvili decided to murder a judge, any judge, as an act of revenge. Azar was selected as the target, after the possibility of murdering other judges was examined, because his house adjoined an empty lot and afforded the easiest escape route. The police say the suspects had a list of eight Tel Aviv District Court judges from whose houses it was thought possible to make an escape.
The murder of Judge Azar gave rise to many hypotheses about the motivation for the killing, and the investigation took several directions, criminal, political, and personal.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on November 28, 2004