Murder of Oleg Shaichat

Oleg Shaichat was a 20-year-old corporal in the Israel Defense Forces who was abducted and killed in the Lower Galilee in July 2003. According to the English Wikipedia account of the case, Shaichat was serving in the IDF Northern Command's computer unit and was hitchhiking home from his base in Safed when he was picked up near the Beit Rimon junction by two members of the Arab-Israeli 'Free People of the Galilee' cell, which the source describes as a terrorist cell. On a side road the two men fought with Shaichat, strangled him, and stole his personal weapon before hiding and later burying his body and burning his belongings.

Shaichat had immigrated to Israel from Ukraine with his family in 1995 and lived in Nazareth Illit. The source states that he completed high school with honors, majoring in computers, and that he was survived by his parents and a brother.

His disappearance prompted an intensive, week-long search in which hundreds of volunteers took part. On July 28, 2003, his body was found in an olive plantation by a 67-year-old volunteer who had previously served in an IDF tracking unit. An investigation followed.

The inquiry initially led to the arrest of three men, who were held for about eight months before being cleared and released. One of them had confessed and re-enacted the crime but later retracted the statement, saying it had been made under pressure and based on media accounts and villagers' descriptions rather than firsthand knowledge. The Israeli government subsequently paid the three men financial compensation and legal costs.

The case advanced in April 2004 after a separate shooting at the Beit Rimon junction, when a weapon recovered from the attackers was identified as Shaichat's stolen firearm. That identification, described in the source as a breakthrough, led to further arrests, and members of the cell admitted involvement in the killing. One member, Muhammad Anabtawi, was convicted of the murder on August 12, 2004. On December 17, 2007, he was sentenced to 50 years in prison for the murder, for terror activities, and for four attempted kidnappings.