{"id":665438,"date":"2026-05-12T06:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T06:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/665438\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T06:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T06:21:11","slug":"marat-ganiev-eyal-yaffe-have-charges-dropped-due-to-insufficient-evidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/665438\/","title":{"rendered":"Marat Ganiev, Eyal Yaffe have charges dropped due to \u2018insufficient evidence\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated May 12, 2026 \u2014 3:52pm,first published 2:07pm<\/p>\n

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A friend of Isla Bell says those who knew and loved the teen will never have closure after the man accused of killing her had the case against him dropped.<\/p>\n

Marat Ganiev, 55, was accused of killing Bell in the early hours of October 7, 2024 at his St Kilda East apartment, before hiding her body in a fridge which was moved to different addresses across Melbourne\u2019s south-eastern suburbs.<\/p>\n

\"IslaIsla Bell\u2019s mother, Justine Spokes, addressed the media outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday.Nine News<\/p>\n

Her remains were eventually found at a rubbish tip in Dandenong six weeks later.<\/p>\n

Ganiev was originally charged with murder, but that was downgraded to manslaughter as the case made its way through the Supreme Court of Victoria after issues were raised about Bell\u2019s cause of death.<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Jeremy McWilliams on Tuesday told the court the manslaughter charge against Ganiev had now also been withdrawn.<\/p>\n

Ganiev will instead be charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.<\/p>\n

\"EyalEyal Yaffe (left) leaves court on Tuesday.Nine News<\/p>\n

Eyal Yaffe, 59, was also originally accused of assisting an offender and attempting to pervert the course of justice in relation to Bell\u2019s death. The court heard those charges will also be discontinued.<\/p>\n

Close friend Isy, who asked for her surname not to be used, said she was shaking with rage that no one would ever be held to account over Bell\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have absolutely no words,\u201d she said in a statement. \u201cWhat does this say to girls, young women, all women?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just disposable. I am so heartbroken.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IslaIsla Bell\u2019s body was found at a tip in 2024.Marija Ercegovac<\/p>\n

Isy said she was struggling to comprehend how the case could be dropped and the impact it would have.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer family and her community will never have closure.<\/p>\n

\u201cDarling friend Isla, you deserved justice. I\u2019m so sorry. This should have never been the outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for the Office of Public Prosecutions confirmed the charges had been withdrawn due to \u201cinsufficient evidence\u201d to support the offences.<\/p>\n

With AAP<\/p>\n

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\"CassandraCassandra Morgan<\/a> is the City team\u2019s urban affairs writer at The Age. Contact her at cassandra.morgan@theage.com.auConnect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated May 12, 2026 \u2014 3:52pm,first published 2:07pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-665438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}