In his cross-examination, the commander of the Central Intelligence Unit denied the claim that even before he entered the interrogation of Defendant 2, it was clear to him that he was suspected of murder and not of drug offenses; and insisted that at this stage Defendant 2 was not a suspect in murder as far as he was concerned, but rather "a person with some kind of unclear involvement with whom I want to speak" (p. 51, paras. 11-12). According to him, the interrogator Malichi called him to go into the room with him, but he did not know if Defendant 2 asked for it and Malichi did not tell him that he had spoken to him before, or what Defendant 2 was about to tell (pp. 41-43).
Superintendent Michael Michaeli, a retrial interrogation officer at the Lachish District Attorney's Office, testified that upon receiving the report of a missing person, he arrived at the scene with other parties, and it was initially decided that the Sderot station would continue to handle the incident; but the next day, when it became clear that the deceased's weapon was not among the remains of the vehicle, it was decided to treat the incident as a murder case and the District Attorney was asked to handle the case. Regarding the claim that a maneuver was carried out in which the defendants were interrogated on suspicion of murder under the guise of a drug investigation, he replied that it was not true and that no trick was carried out, but rather that the investigation developed in stages. At first, it was not clear to them that the defendants were the ones who murdered the deceased; Defendant 1 was brought to testify because an examination of the deceased's phone revealed that he was the last to speak with him; Defendant 2 was initially brought as a witness because Defendant 1 mentioned him, and after Defendant 1 linked him to drug offenses, he was interrogated in connection with that only; And only in the late hours of the night did it become clear that they were connected to the murder and that they were openly interrogated on suspicion of murder. According to him, if he had believed that Defendant 2 was suspected of murder in the first place, he would not have allowed his family members to bring him to the station, but would have ordered his arrest (pp. 206, 209-210 and also at p. 243).