{"id":674935,"date":"2026-05-16T15:20:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T15:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/674935\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T15:20:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T15:20:22","slug":"rally-held-for-isla-bell-after-prosecutors-drop-murder-charge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/674935\/","title":{"rendered":"Rally held for Isla Bell after prosecutors drop murder charge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eight months ago, friends and family of Melbourne woman Isla Bell spent weeks spreading photos of her across Melbourne’s northern suburbs, hoping to find some trace of the missing 19-year-old.<\/p>\n

On Saturday in Melbourne’s CBD, the same friends and family were joined by hundreds of others, holding up photos of Ms Bell at a rally over her death.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Isla Bell’s family and friends signposted her disappearance widely across Melbourne in October last year. (ABC News: Rudy De Santis\u00a0)<\/p>\n

The rally in front of the State Library came days after prosecutors dropped a manslaughter charge against accused killer Marat Ganiev.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was Mr Ganiev’s St Kilda East home where Ms Bell was last seen alive, six weeks before her body was discovered at a tip.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the Office of Public Prosecutions said the manslaughter charge against Mr Ganiev was discontinued because there were “no reasonable prospects of conviction due to insufficient evidence”.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Isla Bell’s remains were discovered in November 2024, six weeks after she was last seen alive. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Mr Ganiev, 55, still faces charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice and will face court at a later date.<\/p>\n

His alleged associate Eyal Yaffe, who police accused of moving a fridge containing Ms Bell’s body, walked out of the Supreme Court on Tuesday a free man.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Friends and family who knew Isla Bell were joined by strangers moved by her story. (ABC News: Natasha Schapova)<\/p>\n

Ms Bell’s mother Justine Spokes gave a speech at the rally, with waves of emotion overwhelming her as she spoke.<\/p>\n

“There’s despair there, but there’s open hearts. I feel so supported, it’s a really beautiful turnout today,” she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Spokes said the dropping of charges during the week had left her devastated.<\/p>\n

“My mind was prepared for that outcome because my expectations were low,” she said.<\/p>\n

“They weren’t low enough, and I just couldn’t prepare my heart for that.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

About 200 people attended the rally in front of the State Library on Saturday. (ABC News: Natasha Schapova)<\/p>\n

She said she had spoken to Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny during the week regarding the outcome.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ms Spokes called for Victoria and other Australian jurisdictions to introduce national trauma-informed media legislation on the reporting of gendered violence, following recommendations made after South Australia’s Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence.<\/a><\/p>\n

“It would certainly stop the victim-blaming narrative,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Isla’s schoolmates remember ‘incredible’ friend<\/p>\n

Mia and Kira were friends of Isla Bell in primary school, and came to the rally to show their support.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There was a very certain energy to Isla, honestly sometimes it was intimidating just how wild and confident she was, she was incredible,” Kira said.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Childhood friends of Isla Bell showed their support on Saturday. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Mia paid tribute to her friend’s artistic skill, remembering her creativity.<\/p>\n

“Every time I would go to her house, I would go there and she would have made a painting, she’d be doing henna art on her arm,” she said.<\/p>\n

Kira said she was left “so disappointed” by the decision on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

“I cried such angry tears, and I know that the point of today isn’t to be here in anger, but that’s the first feeling that really got to me,” she said.<\/p>\n

Mia, who is currently studying to be a lawyer, said the outcome had shaken her faith in the justice system.<\/p>\n

“It’s not good enough,” she said.<\/p>\n

“To have this happen in my life so early \u2014 in all of our lives so early \u2014 it just destroys all my trust in the legal system.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eight months ago, friends and family of Melbourne woman Isla Bell spent weeks spreading photos of her across…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,48,121815,44,26293,20011,7813,12632],"class_list":["post-674935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-crime","tag-isla-bell","tag-news","tag-rally","tag-vigil","tag-violence","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674935","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=674935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}