Serious Crimes Case (Beer Sheva) 63357-03-18 State of Israel – F.M.D. V. Assaf Masoud Suissa - part 70

Defendant 2 reiterated his claims that Defendant 1 "committed the murder.  I'm risking my life, I followed him, I was afraid he'd kill me if I didn't listen to him"; and when he was told that he was too big for Defendant 1, he replied, "It's not about physical force or not, the man has a background in this past, he told me that he did it several times and he threatened my life and he threatened my family.  It has nothing to do with size or not, that's what a man can do, and he said he could do anything" (ibid. in vv. 11-16).  When asked why he did not make any attempt to escape, call the police or call for help after the incident, for example at the gas station, he replied that "already from the meeting of the three of us, [Defendant 1] had a weapon and I had nothing, only after he committed the act did I see what he was beating him with and I feared for my life.  The man knows me...  And I couldn't call the salesman at a gas station because it was after the execution that [Defendant 1]  was carrying the gun with him, and I couldn't, because if I had called for help, he would have killed me, and it's not that I didn't try to stop him.  I couldn't" (ibid. 21-25).  Later, to the question of why he went towards the car while defendant 1 was dragging the deceased, he replied that that was what he told him to do and that if he had not obeyed he would have killed him, especially since he could not escape because he did not know the area, and if he had the opportunity to run away and call for help he would have done so (ibid. at paras. 41-47).  When he was told that the interrogation material showed that he was aware of his actions and acted thoughtfully and calmly, both during the incident and afterwards, when he acted to disrupt the investigation and conceal evidence, he replied, "All the things I did were motivated by fear for my own death... [Defendant 1] threatened my life, I'm not a murderer, I have a future, I don't need this, I'm not connected to this world and there's no way I'll take my life, why who am I?"