20 years later: Tair Rada murder case reopened - and will be investigated by Tel Aviv YAMAR

Almost 20 years after the murder of the teenager Tair Rada at the Nofei Golan school in Katzrin, the police have reopened the investigation file and are examining new leads following information received recently. As part of the decision, the investigation was transferred from the Northern District Central Investigation Unit (YAMAR) to the Tel Aviv YAMAR, where investigators have begun to examine the information and formulate new lines of inquiry.

Recall that Judge Asher Kula, who headed the panel of judges in the retrial in which Roman Zadorov was acquitted, wrote in the verdict regarding the investigation of Ola Kravchenko and Adir Habani:

"It seems to me that the very fact that the Northern District YAMAR had already 'found the murderer' made it very difficult for the YAMAR investigators to try and find 'another murderer'. It would have been better if, from the beginning, the investigation file regarding Adir and Ola had been referred to a YAMAR or another investigative body in a different district."

It has come to the attention of Walla that the decision was made after a series of discussions held at the top of the police command, up to the level of Police Commissioner Dani Levy. During the discussions, it was decided not to settle for the checks carried out over the years, but to allow a new investigative team to examine the evidence and the information received with fresh eyes, in the hope of locating a line of investigation that had not been checked in the past or to re-examine existing findings.

The Tair Rada murder case is considered one of the most turbulent and complex cases in the history of the law enforcement system in Israel. Roman Zadorov was convicted of the murder in 2010, but after years of legal proceedings, a retrial, and a re-examination of the evidence, he was acquitted in 2023. After his release from prison, and after having served about 15 years in incarceration, he reached a compensation agreement with the state, under which it was determined that he would receive 17 million shekels.

In the background of these developments is also the testimony of Ola Kravchenko in the Tel Aviv District Court, given in December 2024 as part of the libel suit she filed against her former partner Adir Habani and the creators of the series "Shadow of Truth". During her testimony, she said that in the past she used to lie, and when asked if she also lied during Zadorov's trial, she answered in the affirmative.

In that same hearing, Kravchenko was shown, with the permission of Ilana Rada, a picture of the neck wound of Tair Rada. The defense argued that the picture matches a description given by Habani regarding details that he claimed he heard from her. Kravchenko initially replied that the details could have been learned from other sources, but later admitted that it was not possible to deduce those details from the information published publicly.

Now, following the new information received and the transfer of the file to the Tel Aviv YAMAR, the police hope that a re-examination of the evidence, alongside additional investigative actions, will allow for checking leads that were not exhausted in the past and perhaps bring the investigation closer to a final resolution.

The decision to reopen the case was made by the head of the Investigations and Intelligence Division, Nitzav Boaz Blet, in cooperation with Police Commissioner Rav-Nitzav Dani Levy.