Lod court sentences man to life for murdering his partner after brutal attack

The Central District Court in Lod sentenced Moshe Atiyas on Thursday to life in prison plus two additional years, to run consecutively, after convicting him of aggravated murder of his partner and mother of his three children, Sigalit Berakha. The court also ordered him to pay the maximum compensation to her family, 258,000 shekels. Two months ago, Atiyas was convicted of all charges in the indictment, including aggravated murder and endangering human life intentionally on a transport route.

The court accepted the prosecution’s case in full after a lengthy evidentiary trial led by attorney Einat Levari of the Central District Prosecutor’s Office. Judges said the killing was cruel and premeditated, carried out in stages rather than in a spontaneous outburst during an argument. Atiyas first struck Berakha on the head seven times, then took a knife from the kitchen, returned to the bedroom and stabbed her repeatedly in the upper body to make sure she was dead. He then left the scene, called Magen David Adom and reported that he had killed her.

When he saw police approaching, he tried to flee and was arrested only after crashing into a Border Police vehicle. Atiyas did not dispute that he committed the act, but claimed throughout the proceedings that he suffered from a mental disorder that impaired his perception of reality. The court rejected that claim, describing him as intelligent and sharp-minded, and said he acted cunningly and only tried to improve his legal position. The judges also said he was obsessive and jealous, could not accept that Berakha might leave him, and acted according to a distorted belief that if she would not be his, she would not exist at all.

After sentencing, Berakha’s sister, Limor Cohen, said the family had endured a three-year ordeal and that the victim was killed by her husband in an “unbelievable” and “cruel” murder that left the children orphaned. Prosecutor Levari said the case sent a clear message about the severity of domestic violence and the duty to protect women in the home, while family lawyer Ruti Eldar said justice had finally met the truth. According to the report, the killing took place in February 2023, on the day the couple from Lod had been due to fly together to Georgia. Atiyas called police to report the murder, then fled and was stopped after hitting the Border Police car. Lod Mayor Yair Revivo later said Berakha was a childhood friend and had recently been interviewed for a city job.