"You murdered a human being, how can you sit and laugh?": An exclusive interview with Matanya, whose friend Binyahu Razi was murdered before his eyes

Matanya, a friend of the late Binyahu Razi, was by his side during the murder in the Nahlaot neighborhood of Jerusalem. He was initially arrested as a suspect and found out about his friend's death by chance at the police station. Binyahu's mother, Dikla Razi, stated: "Binyahu died in his hands, he saw everything, and he is only 18 years old."

"You murdered a human being, how can you sit and laugh and everything is fine with you?" wondered Matanya in an exclusive interview broadcast this Monday on the main news edition. Matanya, who survived the fatal stabbing incident in which his best friend, the late Binyahu Razi, was murdered, reveals for the first time what happened in that Airbnb apartment in the Nahlaot neighborhood of Jerusalem last July. "It's not easy," he said about the meeting with those accused of the murder and its planning in court. "Apparently they haven't realized yet what they have done."

According to him, the violent incident in Nahlaot lasted only about ten minutes and happened as a complete surprise. Matanya recalled that the police and Magen David Adom forces arrived at the scene while Razi was still alive. "He was still wheezing when they arrived," he recalled. He clarified that the attack could not have been anticipated in advance: "It was a complete surprise, not something you could see on them."

Immediately after the murder, Matanya, who helped Binyahu and called for rescue forces, was arrested himself and questioned as a suspect in the first few hours. He said he found out about his friend's death by chance from a conversation between policewomen outside the detention center. "The police specifically didn't treat me very well," he noted. "I heard a policewoman saying that she had a murder case at the beginning of her shift, and that's where I understood that he is no longer with us."

Matanya said that the harassment from Agam Tsarfi, the late Razi's ex-partner who is accused of planning his murder, did not stop even after she and Shilat Huta were sent to detention. "Agam is very obsessive. I received a lot of calls from 'blocked' numbers," he described. "You answer and they don't speak, it's the same pattern." According to him, the community police officer to whom he complained confirmed that these were calls from inside the prison, but the police did not act to stop them. He also referred to their behavior in court hearings: "I saw Agam and Shilat sitting and laughing. You murdered a human being, how can you sit and laugh and everything is fine with you?"

Matanya strongly rejected the claims of the defendants' lawyers that the boys had acted violently towards them before the murder. "Let them prove it. If I had been violent I would know how to say it, but there is nothing," he clarified. He explained that if there had been evidence of violence on his part, he would have remained in detention. "I wouldn't be able to hit a woman and Binyahu wouldn't be able to raise a hand against a woman either." According to him, Tsarfi used to frame Razi in the past after he obtained restraining orders against her. "What caused her to flip that day? Only God knows."

Matanya recalled a chilling conversation he had with Razi about the murder of Yamin Zalka, even before their disaster occurred. "He told me: 'Did you see what happened to him? It's shocking that 15-16 year old kids go out like this with a knife and stab whoever they want.'" Razi predicted then that the attackers would be released within two months due to their young age, and Matanya expressed fear now that in this case too there will be a lighter sentence for the minors involved.

Dikla Razi, the mother of the late Binyahu, said that Matanya became like a son to them since the two became friends. "We understood that he is torn and devastated," she said. "Beyond losing your best friend - he died in his hands. It's terrible, he saw everything and he is only 18 years old." The family called on teenagers to turn to adults in any case of distress to prevent the next tragedy. "In our hearts we are devastated and if it weren't for faith - I don't know if we would be here today," concluded Razi.