“She Knew Him and Was Not Afraid of Him”: Interview With Mother of 16-Year-Old Girl Allegedly Raped by Taxi Driver

Taxi driver Albert Yeshmailov was arrested on suspicion of raping a young woman while driving her home. The complainant’s mother said her daughter has been in a severe condition since the incident: “She is really frightened and panicked.” According to her, her daughter had been riding in taxis for years, and even knew Yeshmailov. She added that her daughter said she tried to struggle and get out of the taxi, but was unable to: “He simply snatched her to a remote area where there was no one, and raped her.”

Oded Ben Ami Six, published: 10.06.26, 21:54

Taxi driver arrested on suspicion of raping a 16-year-old girl during a late-night ride she ordered home. Her mother said: “My daughter is in a very bad state, in severe emotional distress. She is not sleeping and not eating.” According to the mother, her daughter had been riding in taxis for years, and she and her friends even knew the same driver. She recounted what her daughter told her: “He simply snatched her to a remote area, where he brutally raped her.” The complainant also said the driver threatened her after returning her home: “If I go to prison for many years, I will kill the husband and children you will have.”

Albert Yeshmailov, 33, a former police officer and Border Police fighter who works as a taxi driver, was arrested on suspicion of raping a 16-year-old girl whom he was supposed to drive from a friend’s house to her home late at night. Tonight, Wednesday, the girl’s mother spoke with News 12.

“The driver suspected, Albert Yeshmailov, archive

“My daughter is in a really bad state, in very severe emotional distress,” the mother shared in pain. “She was already a thin, small child, and now she is even thinner and smaller, she has reached 36 kilograms. She is not sleeping, she is not eating. She only wears very large black clothes, hoodies, sweatshirts, even though it is summer now. She is not alone for a second, she is really frightened and panicked.”

The mother also recounted what her daughter told her about the difficult ride home from a friend’s house, and said that she was the one who had accustomed her to ordering a taxi regularly, for her safety. “For years I was afraid she would go out alone, that something would happen to her on the street at night,” she said. “That is why I kept paying, thousands and tens of thousands of shekels, to Gett Taxi, so she would never be alone.”

“On that night she ordered a ride through Gett,” the mother continued. “That driver arrived, and instead of taking her home, he abducted her. He deviated from the route to a completely different place. During a not-short ride of a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, a frightened girl sits in his taxi wanting to go home to her mother, trying to get out, not understanding where he is taking her. He simply snatched her to a remote area where there is no one, a desolate place with only garages and factories. There he brutally raped her in the taxi.”

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The mother said the driver, Yeshmailov, returned her home after the difficult incident and threatened her: “He said to her, ‘If you tell anyone, if you complain to the police and I go to prison for many years, I will get out, by then you will already have a husband and children, and I will kill them.’”

Taxi, illustration | Photo: Nati Shochat, Flash 90

The mother added that her daughter and her friends used to ride with Gett Taxi drivers they knew. “I did not know this driver specifically, but the girls knew him,” she said. “They used to ride with a certain driver, and this driver was a friend of that driver. When he could not take them, they got used to riding with the friend. So she knew him, all the girls knew him, and they were not afraid of him.”

“I want to say that as a family we have been through trauma,” the mother concluded about her daughter’s condition. “Being by her side, taking care of her, seeing bursts of crying and shouting. These are terrible symptoms of very severe post-trauma.”

The shocking incident allegedly took place during last April. The 16-year-old filed a complaint with police against Yeshmailov two weeks after the incident, shortly after telling her parents what happened that night. Yeshmailov was arrested as stated, and brought to court, where it was decided to extend his remand. The girl’s attorneys said that additional testimony against him had been received.

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