On Thursday December 8, 1983, the 14-year-old Israeli Danny Katz, a resident of the Denia neighborhood of Haifa, left his house to visit a friend, but disappeared en route.
After a three-day search Katz' mutilated body was found outside a remote cave in the Sakhnin region, bearing marks of strangulation, torture, and sexual assault.
Ghanem initially denied the allegations, but later confessed and implicated four additional partners in crime – Fathi Janameh, Ali Ganayem and Atef Sabihi.
[3] The assailants' attorney Avigdor Feldman claimed that the suspects' conviction was improper due to a lack of solid evidence against the accused and the court's reliance solely on their confessions, which according to the defendants, were given under duress.
[4][5] Following continuous public pressure, the Israeli Justice Minister David Libai ordered the attorney Judith Karp to prepare a report about the case.