In a setback for the police, a court yesterday released
suspected organized crime boss Shalom Domrani, as well as the other suspects in
a case of alleged extortion of a Netivot rabbi.
Police suspect that Domrani and his colleagues, together
with Rabbi Yoram Abergel, extorted Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Ifergan in an attempt
to influence the results of last month’s municipal elections in Netivot.
Ifergan is better known by his nickname, the X-Ray Rabbi.
The Rishon Letzion Magistrate’s Court allowed police to hold
Domrani and the other suspects for 10 days while they pursued their
investigation. But yesterday, Judge Menahem Mizrahi ordered that they be
released from jail, though they will remain under house arrest for the next two
weeks.
“You can’t arrest someone just because of his reputation,”
Mizrahi wrote. “There are clear rules, including the existence of evidence,
progress in the investigation and a clear reason for the arrest.”
Domrani’s arrest came at a time when police were under
public pressure to do something about organized crime, due to a series of
suspected underworld bombings that climaxed in the bombing of a senior
prosecutor’s car in Tel Aviv.
Several other suspected organized crime figures
were arrested at about the same time, and Public Security Minister Yitzhak
Aharonovitch even announced Domrani’s arrest during a live broadcast on Channel
2 television. But critics warned at the time that many of these arrests were
premature, and so far, most of those arrested have been released.
Police said they intend to appeal yesterday’s ruling, but
added that in any case, a decision to release a suspect from arrest says
nothing about the final outcome of the investigation.
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