An Israeli court on Thursday acquitted a former floor tiler of the murder of a schoolgirl in a case that riveted the country for more than a decade, stirring cover-up and conspiracy theories and drawing comparisons to the TV mystery "Twin Peaks".
The reversal of fortunes for Roman Zdorov also touched a nerve among Israelis divided over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's graft trial - in which he has denies wrongdoing and cast as a political witch-hunt - and his judicial overhaul plan.
Zdorov, a Ukrainian immigrant with poor Hebrew, argued he had been coerced into confessing to slashing the throat of 13-year-old Tair Rada in a bathroom stall of her school in 2006. He was convicted in 2010 and sentenced to life in prison.
