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Four suspects held for suborning witness in human trafficking trial
By Roni Singer
August 27, 2004
Former private investigator Yaakov Eshel was arrested yesterday on suspicion of
suborning a witness. Eshel, recently arrested on suspicion of involvement in
the Paritzky affair, is now suspected of conspiring with attorney Kiril
Roshkiban, his girlfriend Natalia Kondalevsky, and a private investigator named
Boaz Elias to suborn a call girl to give false testimony in the trial of a man
accused of rape and trafficking in women, Sergei Koperman.
The remands of Roshkiban, Eshel, Elias and Kondalevsky yesterday were extended
until Tuesday.
Investigators from the Russian crime squad at the Tel Aviv District police
began working on the case three weeks ago after a call girl volunteered that
she had lately testified falsely in Koperman's behalf and told police that
Koperman's lawyer and others had recruited her. After hearing her story,
investigators understood why Koperman's trial fell apart with the prosecution
deciding to forgo its main witness in the case.
"We got four call girls as witnesses against Koperman, one of whom was raped by
him. She's the main witness for the prosecution," recounted Chief
Superintendent Pini Aviram. "Since the trial began one witness disappeared, but
the main one remained. We found out that Koperman consulted his lawyer Kiril
Roshkiban and his girlfriend Natalia Kondalevsky on how to get out of his legal
predicament. We suspect the lawyer advised Koperman to obtain a witness who
would testify in court that the prosecution's central witness is lying, and
thereby undermine her testimony and perhaps even get it voided," he said.
Police claim that Kondalevsky, who runs one of the escort agencies owned by
Koperman, approached several call girls until she succeeded in persuading one
of them, a resident of the CIS, to give false testimony in return for a promise
that Roshkiban would legalize her status in Israel.
"The problem was that they had to camouflage for the court how they obtained
the witness; otherwise it would look suspicious. Therefore, we suspect the
lawyer went to former PI Eshel and asked him to prepare a document attesting
that he was hired to locate the new witness."
Police suspect that Eshel, who no longer holds a PI's license, referred the
lawyer to private investigator Boaz Elias, who prepared the documents
confirming that an intensive investigation on his part unearthed a new witness
who could refute the testimony by the main prosecution witness.
That false witness signed a deposition stating that the prosecution witness was
lying about the date of her arrival in Israel, and that she knew that the
witness actually arrived two weeks earlier. That being the case, Koperman was
overseas and therefore had no connection with her. The witness even testified
to this under oath in court, thereby undermining the prosecution, which as a
result intended to go for a plea bargain and cancel the testimony of the main
witness. But then the false witness decided to tell police investigators the
truth, which led to the arrests.
Eshel was a central figure in last month's Paritzky affair, which triggered a
widespread investigation after an audiotape surfaced that had been made by
Eshel in 2002 of a conversation he had with Shinui MK Joseph Paritzky, who was
then infrastructure minister.
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