Nearly a year has passed since 20-year-old Shelly Dadon was apparently brutally murdered by an Arab taxi driver who strangled and stabbed her 17 times last May, and despite overwhelming evidence her bereaved and grieving family is still waiting for a verdict in the trial.

Dadon’s cousin Asaf Sarid told Arutz Sheva there is irrefutable proof against the murderer Hussein Khalifa, who is suspected of murdering Dadon in Migdal Haemek in the north as she rode in his taxi on her way to a job interview.

“They found the DNA of the murderer on the fingernails of the murdered, peopled testified that he drove the taxi, he led the investigators to the site where (Dadon’s) wallet was thrown, so what are they waiting for?” posed Sarid.

The evidence includes the recording of Dadon’s final phone call she made to her cousin Tal Perez, in which she said “what a scary taxi! I left at a quarter to seven. I can’t breathe…” at which point choking sounds are heard and the call cuts off. Khalifa even admitted in court to murdering Dadon, before later denying it.

“Why does the trial of a murderer this despicable need to be dragged out for such a long time?” asked the grieving cousin. “They are wasting public monies to torture the family.”

According to Sarid, Dadon’s parents are not doing well, and the chances of them recovering from their daughter’s brutal murder are very low, all the more so given the long trial.

Sarid noted “I would expect that a case like this would end quickly. The mother Ilana is in a very bad situation; every hearing, every piece of evidence or testimony brings them right back to the murder, and even without that the rehabilitation is very difficult.”

“We would expect that the state, in a case like this where there’s decisive evidence, would end the trial quickly,” he added.

Dadon’s cousin spoke about the outcome of the case, and said the only ruling that the family will accept is the death penalty, which is legal in Israel but has only been used once against Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann.

“That’s the only court ruling from our point of view, we don’t want to see the murderer in a five-star hotel, getting dental treatment and studies in jail,” said Sarid. “These murderers leave at the end with a bachelor’s degree.”

Dadon was recognized as a terror victim over two-and-a-half months after she was murdered, with many pointing to a common thread of police “covering up” the murder of Jews to deflect attention from Arab terrorism.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/191315