Ramle murder investigation: 4 suspects arrested in connection with Asma Abu Ghanem case
Two months after the murder of 18-year-old Asma Abu Ghanem in Ramle, police have arrested four suspects, including a relative. Authorities believe the incident was rooted in a family dispute.
Two months after the murder, the Central District's Central Investigation Unit arrested four suspects today, Wednesday, on suspicion of involvement in the killing of 18-year-old Asma Abu Ghanem from Ramle, which occurred in June.
The detainees include a relative of Abu Ghanem and three women who were apparently involved in the incident. The four were brought for questioning at the Central Investigation Unit offices in Ramle, and police are expected to request an extension of their detention in court later.
Abu Ghanem was shot to death about two months ago while walking down a street in the Juwarish neighborhood. Police estimated at the time that the murder was related to a family dispute.
Advocate Gali Singer, CEO of the Israel Women's Lobby, stated after the murder:
"Asma Abu Ghanem was murdered, allegedly against the background of family violence. There is no 'family honor' in a child who is murdered by someone who mistakenly thinks they have ownership over her. All the warning signs were there. Asma was only 19 years old, an orphan of both her parents. Just a few years ago her father was murdered, and his killer has not been brought to justice to this day. Now her own life has been taken violently after she separated from her partner and received threats against her life."
Last week, the Northern District Attorney's Office filed serious indictments in the Nazareth District Court against three defendants—a 43-year-old resident of Sajur, a 28-year-old resident of Samia, and a 19-year-old resident of Kiryat Shmona—for the double murder about two months ago in the town of Buq'ata in the northern Golan Heights, in which local resident Marwan Abu Shahin (52) and Saada Saada (56) from Hurfeish were shot to death.
The indictment reveals that a hit squad from a criminal organization in the north organized the murder in advance, renting a property in Buq'ata the day before the murder, where they arrived in two vehicles purchased from a car lot in Isfiya.
A few days earlier, the Haifa District Attorney's Office filed an indictment against two young men, aged 17 and 19, accused of shooting to death Yasser Abu al-Hijja (34) at a barbershop in Tamra last month. According to investigators, they planned to murder a relative while he was getting a haircut, but ended up hitting Abu al-Hijja instead.
