Prosecutors in northern Israel filed an indictment on Wednesday against a 29-year-old Afula resident accused of setting a car on fire, and asked the Nazareth district court in Nof HaGalil to keep him jailed until the end of proceedings. The case began earlier this month after police were called to a car burning in Afula, with nearby vehicles also damaged by the flames.
Fire and rescue crews found a mobile phone on the ground near the burned car. Police seized it and took it to the local station to examine why it had been left there. A few hours later, the suspect came to the station and said he had used a dedicated app to locate his lost phone there and demanded it back. Officers identified him by his details, told him he would not receive the device until any link to the arson was ruled out, and sent him away.
He was arrested the next day after investigators suspected an indirect connection between him and the victim through a woman who had previously been involved with the victim and is now in a relationship with the suspect. Police say that a few days before the fire, the two men met for the first time at an ATM in the city, exchanged small talk, realized they both knew the same woman, and the victim warned the suspect about her after describing their past relationship and breakup.
According to the investigation, the suspect later told the woman what the victim had said, and detectives later uncovered extensive messages between them indicating a planned act of revenge. Police also found a photo of the victim’s car sent by the suspect to the woman, along with a message in which he wrote, in part, that he wanted to ask whether she could identify the vehicle and that he had checked the area, the cameras and the neighborhoods.
