The Beersheba District Court has reached a verdict in a decades-old murder case, convicting Sami Abu Al-Asal for the 2003 killing of Margarita Levy in Eilat. Abu Al-Asal, a 51-year-old Jaffa resident, accepted a plea deal resulting in a 23-year prison sentence.
Levy, 21 at the time, had recently arrived in Eilat to work as a waitress before beginning her university studies in Jerusalem. According to prosecutors, Abu Al-Asal assaulted Levy just four days after her arrival, beating her severely and stabbing her in the chest before abandoning her body in a city park, as reported by the Times of Israel.
The case remained unsolved for 20 years until advancements in forensic technology in 2022 allowed investigators to link DNA evidence from the crime scene to Abu Al-Asal. Following an undercover investigation, he was arrested in May 2023.
While initially accused of sexual assault in addition to murder, those charges were ultimately dropped from the final conviction due to evidentiary issues.