Testimony of Uriel Zioni, Idan Meir and Rinat Hazan
- Two of the defendant's friends at the yeshiva and his employer identified the defendant in the security camera footage that was shown to them during their interrogations with the police. However, in their testimonies in court, these witnesses gave much more qualified testimony.
Uriel Zioni, the defendant's roommate in the yeshiva (hereinafter: "Uriel"), identified the defendant with a high level of certainty in most of the security camera footage shown to him during his interrogation by the police on November 7, 2023. In the video of Shih Jarrah, Uriel identified the defendant with a level of 85% certainty (P/50, line 21). In the Bank Leumi video, Uriel identified the defendant's face with a level of 85% certainty (N/50, line 17). In the postal video, Uriel identified the defendant with a level of 85% certainty (P/50, line 27). In the video, the court identified the defendant's face with a level of 70% certainty, but claimed that the defendant's body type was wider than the body type of the man documented in the video (P/50, line 13).
In his testimony in court, Uriel retracted his assertiveness of identification. In an excerpt from the video, Jarrah identified the defendant with only 40% certainty and claimed that the man in question resembled the defendant, but not with certainty (page 58 of the transcript of the hearing of December 22, 2024, lines 3, 8-9). In an excerpt from the mail video and the court video, Uriel said that the man documented resembles the defendant, but not with certainty (p. 60 of the transcript of the hearing of December 22, 2024, lines 9, 16; page 51 of the transcript of the hearing of December 22, 2024, lines 14, 16). In the excerpt from the court's video, Uriel identified the defendant with a level of 40%-50% certainty (page 52 of the transcript of the hearing of December 22, 2024, line 5).
- Idan, who studied with the defendant in the yeshiva, and who rented his apartment to Shimon, identified the defendant and Shimon in his police interrogation in the video of Sheikh Jarrah (P/79A, page 10, lines 252, 286-287). In the postal video, too, Idan identified the defendant (P/79A, page 13, line 333). Idan also identified the defendant in the videos of Bank Leumi, Mercantile Bank and the court (P/79A, p. 13, line 324; p. 14, line 355; p. 15, line 368).
However, in his testimony in court, Idan gave a more hesitant version. Regarding the video of Shih Jarrah, Idan confirmed that one of the men in the video "resembles the defendant slightly" in his physique, but it is not possible to get an impression if his face is similar to the defendant's face (p. 151 of the transcript of the hearing of 9 July 2025, lines 18-22; p. 155, lines 16, 18, 22), and also claimed that the other man resembles Shimon (p. 149 of the transcript of the hearing of 9 July 2025, lines 11, 19). Regarding the video of the mail, Idan claimed that the man in question resembled the defendant but that he "does not see the defendant 100 percent" (p. 166 of the transcript of the hearing of July 9, 2025, line 17; page 167, lines 14, 23). Regarding the Bank Leumi video, Idan testified that the man in question resembled life, but that he "cannot tell you with certainty" (page 159 of the minutes of the hearing of July 9, 2025, lines 1, 7). In other videos shown to Idan, he did not identify the defendant. Idan explained the discrepancy between the version he gave in his police interrogation and the version he gave in his testimony in court about the previous accident and the memory problem he suffered as a result of it (page 136 of the transcript of the hearing of July 9, 2025, lines 10-11).
- Rinat Hazan employed the defendant, from time to time, in a children's clothing store in Jerusalem that she owned (hereinafter: "Rinat"). During her interrogation by the police, which took place in the store she owns on 6 November 2023, Rinat identified the defendant in videos from Bank Leumi, Mercantile Bank, the court and the post office (in her statement to the police, P/78, page 1, lines 3, 7, 9, 11). Rinat also identified the defendant in the video of Shih Jarrah with a level of 100% certainty (in her statement to the police, P/78, page 2, line 15).
In her testimony in court, Rinat retracted her identification of the defendant. Referring to the video of Sikh Jarrah, Rinat said that the man documented "looks like life, but that's not for sure. I'm telling you the truth. The picture is blurred" (p. 73 of the minutes of the hearing of March 20, 2025, line 15, and also p. 80, line 5). Regarding the video of the mail, Rinat denied that he was a defendant, and in her words: "You also see a distortion. His nose reaches his lips, this is not the person" (p. 79 of the transcript of the hearing of March 20, 2025, lines 28, 31, 33). Regarding the Bank Leumi video, Rinat testified that the man documented does not resemble the defendant, and in her words: "No, there is no here. It doesn't look like the same person at all" (p. 80 of the transcript of the hearing of March 20, 2025, line 12; and also on page 111 of the transcript of the hearing of March 20, 2025, lines 11-12), but when she was shown another segment of the same video, she said, "It's similar" (p. 112 of the transcript of the hearing of March 20, 2025, line 4). Regarding the court video, Rinat also claimed that the man documented does not resemble the defendant, as follows: "No, it doesn't look like life. It doesn't look like him. Nor did I" (p. 77 of the transcript of the hearing of March 20, 2025, lines 10, 12).