The family of allegedly murdered Melbourne teenager Isla Bell wept in court after a drug-using Israeli criminal accusing of helping to conceal her body was granted bail.
Eyal Yaffe, 57, was on Monday released by Magistrate Rohan Lawrence, who decided he was not a flight risk despite being arrested with a plane ticket, $6,000 cash, bank cards in other people’s names and two mobile phones belonging to unknown people, the Herald Sun reported.
Mr Lawrence told Melbourne Magistrates Court the plane ticket to Bulgaria, which has no extradition treaty with Australia, was a return flight booked weeks after his first arrest and he therefore found it “hard to see as a concerted effort to flee this jurisdiction”.
He also disagreed with the prosecution’s argument that Yaffe was a risk to public safety or could intimidate witnesses, saying the case did not hinge or witnesses and there was no person or group of persons put forward who would be endangered by his release.
Yaffe was ordered to surrender his passport, be electronically monitored, and live in Brighton East with his son who put up $20,000 and promised to employ him at his painting business.
The body of Ms Bell, 19, was recovered last week, one and a half months after she went missing, and heroin addict Marat Ganiev, 53, was charged with her murder on November 19. Yaffe was charged with assisting an offender.
On Friday police told the same court Yaffe has significant criminal connections in Victoria, unexplained wealth, is the subject of a Firearm Prohibition Order and has a history of drug use. He was allegedly arrested with methamphetamine and seen on CCTV with an ice pipe.
Ganiev faced court on Wednesday where his lawyer Adrian Lewin said his client needed 70mg of methadone, used to treat heroin addiction, as he had not had access to the medication since his arrest on Tuesday.
Neither man has entered a plea, and both will face court again in March.
According to court documents Ms Bell was last heard from on October 7 when she told a friend on Snapchat that she had found the “best Russian sugar daddy” who had been giving her gifts and had rescued her from sex traffickers.
Police allege she met Ganiev on October 5, and alleged in a summary released by the court that the pair were seen on CCTV just after midnight on October 7 in “what appears to be a fight”.
Ms Bell was allegedly seen again in Ganiev’s St Kilda East apartment up until 2am.
Police allege CCTV shows Ganiev cleaning the home over the next few days, and allege that on October 9 Yaffe arrived with a trailer containing a black fridge. The pair allegedly moved the fridge to the rear of the apartment.
Then on October 17 they were allegedly seen removing the old fridge and placing it on a trailer.
“It is clearly visible that the fridge has been wrapped in a clear plastic and the black tape has been placed on the edges of the doors,” the summary alleges.
The fridge was allegedly moved to a property in Caulfield South where a neighbour reported a foul smell to police.
Police allege Ganiev then moved the trailer and fridge to Bentleigh East on October 22, and then to Mulgrave where he allegedly put the fridge in a removal van.
A resident then found Ms Bell’s remains inside on November 18.
Header image: Left and right, Eyal Yaffe. Inset, Isla Bell (Facebook).
