Ex-Partner in Murder Probe Claims He Was Asleep at Home During Car Bombing

A Jerusalem magistrate's court in Rishon LeZion extended by four days the detention of the estranged partner of 35-year-old Lehia Malka, who is suspected of being murdered in a car bomb attack on Route 20, the Ayalon Highway, earlier this month. The man denies the murder allegation through his lawyers, Rais Abu Saif and Amir Kamhi, and says he was asleep at home when the blast happened, with his grandmother and her caregiver as witnesses.

Most details in the case remain under a gag order. The suspect is refusing to give Central District police investigators from the National Crime Unit the password to his cellphone, even though they have a court order allowing access to its contents. During the hearing, a police representative acknowledged the alibi, but said it does not undermine the suspicion because investigators believe he ordered the killing.

Police said from the first moments at the bombing scene that the attack appeared to match organized crime methods, which include the ability and know-how to obtain an explosive device and place it in a vehicle. According to the National Crime Unit, the suspect arranged the murder by planting a large bomb under the driver's seat, apparently to leave no chance of survival if it detonated. A police representative told the court,