Nearly three years after the October 7 massacre, the family of Matan Mordechai Lior, may God avenge his blood, gathered at the Beersheba Magistrate's Court on Wednesday for a tearful and painful sentencing hearing for three men convicted of stealing and looting his sound equipment while his body still lay in the field where he was murdered.
Wednesday's emotionally charged hearing reopened one of the most outrageous and painful stories to emerge from the margins of the October 7 national tragedy. Nearly three years after the scale of the devastation became clear to the world, the family of Matan Mordechai Lior, who was murdered in the massacre at the Nova festival and posthumously received the Israeli president's Civilian Award for Heroism for his role in saving lives, came to see justice served against the men who exploited the chaos of the disaster and the war to loot the expensive sound equipment that represented his life's work, a company called Sound Fanatic.
According to a report published Wednesday by Ynet, the disturbing affair began on October 9, 2023, just two days after the war broke out, when the area at Re'im was still designated a closed military zone, soaked in the blood of the victims, ash, and the remains of burned-out vehicles. Into that hell came the defendants: Ram Shahin, 34, and Daniel Hasson, 30, of Daliyat al-Karmel, and Sun Lucian Tabel, 35, of Netanya.
The three arrived equipped with a large truck with the stated aim of stealing Matan's sound system and generator, a distinctive setup known for the purple speakers into which he had invested all his money and energy. To carry out their scheme, the three presented a false story to people at the scene, claiming they had come to collect equipment for a missing friend, and later lied to police, claiming one of them was Matan's business partner, a lie that led to the temporary release of the truck along with the stolen property.
At Wednesday's sentencing hearing, held after being postponed twice, Matan's parents, Sarah and Ofer, spoke, delivering words that shook the courtroom. The bereaved mother addressed the defendants directly, saying through tears: "I stand here full of pain, grief, and incomprehensible sorrow, unable to understand how it's possible that on that cursed day the terrible massacre took place, when our son Matan was murdered by Hamas monsters along with hundreds of other children who came to dance and sing. Our Matan didn't run, he stayed, took command, and saved many lives while sacrificing his own life. And across from him now sit three miserable, contemptible thieves who came two days later to loot and steal the sound business he worked so hard to build."
The mother went on to describe the defendants' incomprehensible behavior, which she said crossed every basic human norm: "You thieves, without shame and with full prior knowledge, fraudulently entered the site of the massacre, a place that was still a closed military zone, full of chaos, burned cars, the smell of bodies in the air, and our children's blood not yet absorbed into the ground. Instead of helping, you stole, you robbed, you looted, and you lied, all for money. You shameless people weren't embarrassed, after committing this vile act, to come to our home during the shiva to cover up the theft. It was all planned. Our Matan was light, and you thieves are forces of darkness."
The bereaved father, Ofer, also recounted those terrible days, when he was forced to grapple with the bitter news while simultaneously trying to save his son's property through technological tracking of the equipment. "During the shiva, while I was out in the field searching for Matan with his friends to bring him home, I had to deal with this theft. We received a signal through an electronic chip and saw the truck's route. Instead of focusing on finding my son, we had to deal with this. They were in my home without any shame. They had countless opportunities to admit they had taken the equipment, but they chose to hide it and lie. They showed no regard for any human value and acted in cold blood. I ask that they be dealt with harshly and that the maximum penalty for looting be imposed while the blood had not yet been absorbed into the ground."
A representative of the State Attorney's Office reinforced the parents' statements, telling the court that these actions represent a complete loss of human decency, particularly given that the defendants chose to rob someone who could no longer defend himself. The prosecution asked the court to send a firm and deterrent message against anyone who exploits days of war and national emergency for personal gain and looting. Under the prosecution's request, Shahin, who was convicted of theft and fraudulently receiving property under aggravating circumstances after a full evidentiary proceeding in which the court found he lied and behaved manipulatively, faces up to seven years in prison. Hasson and Tabel, who were convicted under a plea agreement of assisting theft and attempted fraud, face up to five and four years respectively, alongside a request for significant financial compensation to Matan's parents.
Shahin's defense attorney, David Ventura, reportedly attempted during the hearing to minimize the severity of the acts, arguing his client acted with the intention "to help and collect the equipment in order to return it," and asked the court not to link the case to the events of October 7 itself. That argument drew a swift response from Judge Amir Doron, who clarified that the verdict had already been handed down and had established clear findings regarding the defendants' fraudulent intent and premeditation, and that there was no room to reopen those findings at the sentencing stage. The judge also insisted on allowing the bereaved mother to deliver her full statement, despite defense objections, given that she represented the victim of a crime who was brutally murdered.
Sentencing for the three convicted men is expected to be handed down at the Beersheba court on exactly October 7, a symbolic and chilling date marking three years since the day Matan Mordechai Lior's life was cut short, a man who became, in life and in death, a symbol of heroism and light.
