Defendant's lies in support of the prosecution's evidence:
The case law states that the lies of a defendant on a material matter, which were proven by independent evidence and were made with the intention of misleading, may constitute independent evidentiary weight, and strengthen the prosecution's evidence, subject to the lack of a reasonable explanation for the lies. The defendant's lies may constitute aid, especially in light of the prevailing assumption that a defendant who lies does so out of a sense of guilt and an attempt to distance himself from the offense and escape the fear of the law. In addition to these, a defendant's lies may stem from feelings of distress, confusion, or pressure, and do not necessarily indicate guilt. In light of this, a number of cumulative conditions have been established that only if they are met, a defendant's lies may constitute assistance: the lies must relate to a material matter and not a negligible matter; be clear and unequivocal; be aimed at thwarting the investigation and misleading the court; be proven to be false by means of positive and independent evidence; and be connected to the offense to which the trial revolves (see, inter alia, Criminal Appeal 1139/23 Anonymous v. State of Israel (March 13,2024); Criminal Appeal 5136/22 Avraham Locker v. State of Israel (November 10,2024); Criminal Appeal 2050/21 Suleiman Al-Hawashla v. State of Israel (May 16,2023)
In this chapter we discussed some of the lies that were discovered in the defendant's version. A significant part of them are related to a substantive issue that is at the heart of the dispute and are clearly proven to be false, and some of them were found to be false because the defendant retracted them as his version developed without any satisfactory explanation. This is especially true in relation to the question of the proper brakes of the vehicle, his acquaintance with the deceased, the period of time that has elapsed since the incident in the washing to run over the deceased, the claim that he looked at his mobile device while being run over, and other lies. These lies are capable of reinforcing the prosecution's evidence, reinforcement that in the circumstances of the case amounts to assistance.