Serious Crimes Case (Beer Sheva) 63357-03-18 State of Israel – F.M.D. V. Assaf Masoud Suissa - part 169

A clear example of the manner in which defendant 1 testified before us – both the sophisticated and irrelevant answers, as well as the impression of pre-prepared and sometimes even theatrical testimony – is well illustrated in the manner in which he responded to questions about defendant 2's version in the interrogation, according to which he had equipped himself with a sock before the incident, into which he put a stone and with which he beat the deceased.  When asked about this in his main testimony, Defendant 1 replied, "There is no sock and we did not bring any sock from home, if I plan as if I really want to come and murder a human being I will take a sword, I will take a gun, I will take a baseball bat that I have at home because I like to play baseball, I also have a glove and a ball, I will take the club and I will go to him.  If I want to murder a human being, I will take a knife, a fist, there is no shortage today, I live in Sderot, there are many Bedouins around me, if I want to murder a human being, I go to a Bedouin, buy weapons, if I want to..." (pp. 337-338).  When asked about this in his cross-examination, he began to answer with questions, to be clever and to sum up: "They found that sock?...  No, I'm asking because if it's really true then there should be, like, things that prove it...  Is there this sock with the blood? If I'm not mistaken, a sock was found at the crime scene, right?...  There is DNA of the deceased on the sock?...  We have our DNA on the sock?...  I have a sock at home, I have a pair of socks, I don't know what color is there, white, black or green that is missing one sock maybe?".  And only after the court's comments that the manner of these answers did not advance him did he claim that Defendant 2 had lied in his interrogation, and repeated an answer similar to the one he gave in the main interrogation, and even more extremely: "And if I am planning to murder a human being, then why should I take a sock with me? Maybe I'll try to kill him with a pom-pom? No, I'll take a knife, I'll take a gun, I'll take something that they really murder with...  A person who wants to murder someone doesn't take a sock with him to murder a person, he takes a knife with him, he takes a club with him, he takes a weapon with him, he takes a cold weapon or a firearm with him, no matter how they define it, he won't take a sock with him, I won't take a shirt to murder a person, I won't take a pom-pom to murder a person,  I will take a knife, I will take these..." (pp. 380-381, and see also the court's notes regarding the nature of the testimony at p. 382).