These are significant figures, in light of what they imply in relation to the version given by the defendant in his testimony in court, according to which he learned of the murder from an alert received on Telegram from one of his phones. As can be seen, the search of device 337 began at 3:40 p.m., that is, before the installation and activation of the Telegram application on the 337 subscriber, so that if the defendant did indeed learn of the murder from an alert received on Telegram, it was an alert received on device 685, the operational subscription that the defendant denies he held on the day of the murder. The version given by the defendant in relation to the initial source of information regarding the murder therefore strengthens his connection to the 685 subscriber, and through him, to Mitsubishi and his direct involvement in the murder. Moreover, the Telegram post did not include any reference to the deceased's name, and therefore it does not explain how searches were carried out that included his full name, and in fact the name of the deceased. The defendant was confronted with these facts during the conspiracy interrogation, and was unable to provide an explanation for these questions [transcript of September 25, 2024, at p. 680].
To complete the picture on this issue, the reference of Udai, who testified on behalf of the defense from his place of residence in Georgia, will be brought only after the defendant has finished testifying and has been confronted with all the evidence, including the evidence of the conspiracy. According to Udai, they heard about the murder and the identity of the victim "Arpafan" while they were still in the family compound, before they began driving north to Haifa, and at the gas station he "played a little game" on the defendant's phone and looked for information about the murder. When confronted with the defendant's version, according to which he first learned of the murder from a warning received during the trip, he replied that the defendant may have learned of the warning, but that he, 'Udai, had already heard about it in the compound. When asked how he came up with the name "Marwan," he claimed that Lod's WhatsApp groups had already received messages that included the name while they were in the compound. When asked who downloaded the Telegram with the 337 subscriber, he replied that he did not remember, and that it was possible that he was the one who did so [transcript of December 4, 2024, at pp. 204, 215-217].