Israel's Attorney General Denies Request To Shut Down B’hadarei Haredim website

The senior editor of the ultra-Orthodox website Hadrei Haredim

Jerusalem - Citing freedom of the press, Israeli Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein today denied a request to close beleaguered Israeli news site B’Chadrei Chareidim.

As the investigation continues to unfold, it appears that police may be looking into the largest blackmail incident in the history of the state of Israel, involving tens of millions of shekalim.

Allegations continue to accumulate, charging the site with extorting large sums of money from public figures, askanim and rabbonim, by offering to remove negative stories that were published on B’Chadrei Chareidim over the last five years, many of which involved the subjects’ personal lives.

Aryeh Deri, founder of the Shas part was one of those who was called in for questioning at the beginning of the week, as police tried to ascertain if he too was a victim of the massive blackmail scheme.

According to reports on Israel’s News 2 , police are trying to determine if other public figures or politicians were also targeted by the site and so far they have spoken with eight people, further strengthening the case against the editors of B’Chadrei Chareidim.

Police estimate that the number of people who were blackmailed could be in the thousands and they hope that with the editors of the site under arrest, more victims of the blackmail scheme will come forward.