Failed Kidnapping Plot Ends in Fatal Hit-and-Run, Indictment Filed for Murder

Haifa District prosecutors on Friday indicted Adam Dragama, 22, of Kafr Manda, in the Haifa District Court on charges of murder under aggravated circumstances, attempted kidnapping for extortion, and destruction of evidence. The indictment says Dragama ran over Mohammed Faraj Taha, 30, to death in Kiryat Ata, in connection with a debt dispute.

According to the indictment, filed by attorney Yaniv Zohar, Dragama and two accomplices plotted to abduct Taha over a financial debt. They arranged to meet him in Kiryat Ata and arrived by car carrying clubs. When Taha saw them getting out with the clubs, he tried to flee.

At that point, while the two accomplices chased him on foot, Dragama accelerated his vehicle toward Taha and struck him head-on in order to stop him from escaping and enable the kidnapping. The impact threw Taha onto the hood and windshield and then into a parked truck, leaving him critically wounded. Rescue teams that arrived at the scene pronounced him dead.

Afterward, Dragama and the others fled without calling for help. The indictment says Dragama also abandoned the car and destroyed his phone to prevent it from being used as evidence. Prosecutors asked the court to keep him in custody until the end of the proceedings.