Rabbi Moshe Talbi
The State Comptroller has issued a strong condemnation of
police behavior in the investigation of the death of Rabbi Moshe Talbi.
Rabbi Talbi, 54, a father of seven, was found dead of a
gunshot wound in his car nearly three years ago, outside the Israeli community
of Revava in Samaria. Despite evidence indicating that he had been murdered –
including the presence of six bullet shells in his car – police insisted that
the rabbi had committed suicide.
Police only agreed to reopen the case after the family hired
a private pathologist, and took her findings to Knesset, where they gathered
support among MKs for further investigation. A second investigation indicated
that Rabbi Talbi may have been murdered by terrorists.
Due to their erroneous assumption, police officers failed to
conduct basic tests that could have helped find the killers, State Comptroller
Yosef Shapira stated.
“Various examinations that are required in any investigation
of a death of this kind were not carried out,” he wrote. “They did not check
for fingerprints or take DNA samples from the Rabbi’s car, his clothing was not
examined, a picture of the scene was not taken immediately, but rather, only
much later, no pathologist was brought to the scene, and there was no analysis
of the blood pattern at the scene.
“The bullet that was left at the scene was not located, and
security cameras were not checked,” he noted.
“The fact that police reached the conclusion that it was a
suicide before completing the investigation meant they did not conduct critical
tests which could have shed light on the circumstances of the death,” he
charged.
Attorney Shmuel Lankry, Rabbi Talbi’s brother-in-law, spoke
to Arutz Sheva about the case. He noted that police had insisted Rabbi Talbi’s
death was a suicide despite the complete lack of evidence that the rabbi had
been depressed, and despite tell-tale signs of a violent struggle in the car.
In addition, he said, a nearby security camera – which
police failed to check – showed two suspicious figures in the area shortly
before the rabbi’s death.
Lankry said police had hidden evidence that contradicted the
suicide theory, including the presence of DNA that did not belong to Rabbi
Talbi on the trigger of the gun that killed him.
He noted that the State Comptroller had also taken police to
task for the way in which officers broke the news of Rabbi Talbi’s death to his
son Netanel. Police first summuned Netanel Talbi for investigation, and only
after he arrived told him his father was dead.
“The son called his father to tell him he had been summoned
for investigation and didn’t know why, but there was no father to answer him,”
Lankry said.
The comptroller condemned officers’ behavior in the incident
as “unreasonable” and “insensitive.” He rejected to argument made by police
that their goal had been to investigate quickly, saying, “Even if Netanel’s
help was needed in the investigation, it could have been sought in a more
appropriate, more sensitive manner.”
The Talbi family is not seeking revenge, Lankry noted. The
family simply wishes to avoid any similar scenarios in the future, he said.
He noted that the police behavior exhibited after Rabbi
Talbi’s death was not a one-off event. Following the deaths of Asher Palmer and
his infant son Yonatan, police wrote off the incident as a car crash caused by
careless driving. Only the family’s protests, and the fact that Asher’s gun had
been stolen from the scene, led police to investigate further and to conclude
that the two had been murdered by terrorists, Lankry recalled.
“This is a matter of public interest,” he said.
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