As the date of the verdict in the renewed trial of Roman Zdorov, first glimpses are released from the new episode “Shadow of Truth: The Decision” which will be broadcast immediately after the decision on HOT8 and HOTVOD. The new episode, which is about 75 minutes long, describes for the first time the chain of events from the point of view of Roman Zdorov, who gave a first and exclusive interview to the creators of the series (parts of which we will reveal here for the first time).
During the 15 years that Zadorov served in prison, he became one of the most well-known figures in the country, and it seems that every person in Israel has a firm opinion about the question of his guilt. For many he is an innocent man who was wrongfully convicted, while for others he is a brutal child killer. However, as someone who was until recently a convicted felon in prison, Roman was prevented from taking part in the public discussion about it, and he never got to tell his story – until now. The new episode gives voice for the first time to the man everyone thinks they know, but no one has ever heard.
Alongside Zadorov himself, the episode will feature a large number of other interviewees, including the head of the Forensic Medicine Institute, Dr. Chen Kugel, attorney Yarom Halevi, who has been representing Zadorov on a voluntary basis for many years, the former deputy head of the Shin Bet, the late Yitzhak Ilan – this is the interview The last one he gave in his life, before he passed away from complications of Corona – and many more good ones.
Shadow of Truth (Photo: From Shadow of Truth)
Ahead of the release of the new episode, HOT8 released two excerpts from it, which include first glimpses from Zadorov’s exclusive interview: in the first excerpt, Roman talks about his feelings following his release to house arrest after 15 years in prison.
“I got out after 15 years of being in prison, and it’s just unbelievable, everything is new, as if you came back from a life where you don’t know anything,” says Zdorov. “I missed my family the most, the children, my wife, my mother. When they took me from the family, I lost the child. I came back, I didn’t raise him. It’s hard to explain to you when you’re taken away and you’ve lost everything in seconds. These are feelings I don’t know how to explain, even I In Russian, I won’t be able to explain to you what I lost. They took your life, understand this way, in simple languages.”
“My soul, I’m a sensitive person, maybe physically I’m strong but in my soul I’m weak,” adds Zadorov. “And I think that the situation has reached such a point, that I am without help, I feel alone, I just broke down, and I said this to myself: on the one hand, a life sentence to sit on a case that I didn’t do anything, I don’t want to. But on the other hand, I can’t prove my innocence , I just can’t. Even though I know I’m innocent, there’s nothing to do here, there’s no choice. Where do I turn? There’s no one to turn to, no one to talk to. And that’s why I admitted even that I knew I was innocent.”
In the second segment, the former deputy head of the Shin Bet, Yitzhak Ilan, explains what made him leave all his occupations and voluntarily join Zadorov’s defense team. The creators of the series add: “Yitzhak interviewed us in 2020, weeks before he died prematurely from complications of Corona. He did not get to see in his lifetime that his work bore fruit, and that Roman’s request for a retrial was granted a few months after he passed away. That’s why we decided to dedicate the new chapter to his memory.”
Yitzhak’s quote from the excerpt: “I became interested in the Zadorov case only after I saw the series ‘Shadow of Emat’. I realized, wow, it could be that an innocent person is sitting in prison. And I went the high road, I turned to his lawyer. I told him: listen, I understand investigations, I understand Russian, I want to volunteer in this case and help you as much as I can. I sat day and night, day and night, and I came to an unequivocal conclusion: Roman Zdorov is innocent, he did not kill Tair Rada. This is such a palpable false confession , so clear – says this one who has heard many false confessions, including in murders.”