- 25 juli 2007
Eight Israelis charged with trafficking human organs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JODTp2Liw60
27 aug 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qObUs21wl-8
23 dec 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BXNRf8zAvA
21 jan 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGLPZdhoh14
Mr. T. West, President of AfriSynergy Productions and respected leader of the Black Solidarity Movement, has sent urgent warnings to the people of Haiti to protect themselves from the Israeli Defense Forces doctors who have set up a makeshift tent hospital on a soccer field in Port-au-Prince. Mr. West provided evidence that the IDF have been doing the same to Palestinian youths they capture and kill for the purpose of extracting their kidneys, livers, corneas and other valuable transplantable organs and tissues. Mr. West has now become the victim of vicious attacks by nefarious Zionists aiming to silence him.
6 aug 2010
sexual attacks: A victim in every home
Moshav Komemiyut
Six years after the abuse apparently ended, residents of a Haredi moshav have finally begun to testify about the alleged sexual attacks of two male residents on the community's children. Those who complain are being shunned.
On an afternoon toward the end of May, at Komemiyut, an ultra-Orthodox moshav near Kiryat Gat, everything seemed normal: Dogs barked, a donkey was braying in the distance and little Haredi boys recited their "aleph-bais" in reedy voices in the heder (religious kindergarten). But beneath the surface, there was tense anticipation. Fear that the moshav's secret would be discovered.
The police suspect that over the course of many years, children and teens were sexually abused by one of moshav's residents, Shimshon Walzer. For some two decades, according to the suspicion, the suspect acted freely - and there are also claims that some of Walzer's victims have gone on to abuse other children, younger than themselves.
An undercover police investigation of Walzer went on over a period of many months, and led to the additional suspicion that some of the victims were also abused by another person at the moshav. About a month ago, an indictment was filed citing indecent acts and sodomy allegedly committed by that person, who was a minor when most of the crimes attributed to him took place - between 1998 and 2004. Since then, he has been released to house arrest.
Walzer, however, has not been indicted, since in April he flew to the United States to raise money for the moshav's Talmud Torah (elementary school ) and synagogue. Apparently, when he realized the noose was tightening around him, he preferred not to return to Israel and even missed his son's wedding in Bnei Brak on May 26.
The State Prosecutor's Office decided recently not to request an extradition order from the U.S. against Walzer - in part due to the fact that some of the offenses are no longer prosecutable, under the statute of limitations. During the course of the investigation, conducted by the central unit of the Lachish police force, testimony was taken from dozens of victims as well as from moshav officials, including the community's rabbi, the Talmud Torah principal and members of the locale's governing council. Most of the witnesses denied that the two had committed sexual abuse.
Insofar as is known, up until the police stepped in, no complaints about the alleged acts had been filed with the welfare authorities. MK Danny Danon (Likud ), chairman of the Knesset Committee on the Rights of the Child, wrote a letter in June to Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog, asking him to examine "how it is that welfare personnel were not involved, and why the many victims were not and are not being afforded treatment by the welfare authorities." Danon believes that the affair is "a matter of criminal negligence and neglect on the part of the authorities that have failed to treat those involved, both the welfare authorities and the enforcement authorities." His letter has not yet received an answer.
'Defilement that prevails'
Moshav rabbi Mendel Mendelson declined to answer questions from Haaretz. The wife of the Talmud Torah principal, Rabbi Haim Knopfelmacher, said on his behalf that he submitted to police questioning "because there's no choice, but we will not cooperate with the press." Members of the community council whom we contacted also refused to respond.
Komemiyut was established as a cooperative farming village in 1950, but today only a small number of its members raise crops or livestock. Neglect is everywhere; small, ugly houses are surrounded by weed-choked yards. The moshav's only playground has a sign indicating separate hours for boys and for girls.
This is not the first time this moshav has concealed a dark secret. The abducted 6-year-old boy Yossele Schumacher was hidden here for a while in the 1960s; today, Ben-Zion Miller, suspected of having given three narcotics-filled suitcases to ultra-Orthodox drug-runners in 2008, is under house arrest there.
One resident, who like all those interviewed here asked that his name not be published for fear he would be ostracized, said the place never developed because of the "defilement that prevails in it."
Meanwhile, it is hard to explain how, in a community with just 340 inhabitants - fewer than 40 families, who belong to the large Gur, Belz and Vishnitz Hasidic sects - no one knew about the suspected abuse. Especially because, according to one resident, and confirmed by the police, there is hardly a home in which there isn't a victim.
Walzer's alleged sexual abuse began 19 years ago, when he was rabbi of the Talmud Torah. From the investigative material it appears that a kind of deviant sexual culture arose among some of the boys on the moshav, which included sexual activity, sometimes consensual and sometimes forced, and also that a special language developed around this activity. The expression "to beat up," for example, was used as code for groping and touching of a sexual nature, which often led to forced acts. One resident in his 20s related that instead of playing cops and robbers, the moshav's children invented a game of tag called "Shimshon Walzer."
Of the 40 cases in which there is suspicion of abuse by Walzer, the police have collected complaints and testimony from 16 purported victims, who were aged between 7 and 16 when the acts were committed. Two complained against the additional suspect. Many of the witnesses, now married and living outside the moshav, were not willing to make official complaints, for fear they would be exposed. The acts were apparently frequent, and committed in abandoned barns and chicken coops, or surrounding fields.
From the testimony collected by the investigators, it emerges that the patterns of action of the two suspects were similar: molestation of minors aged 9, 10 and above, most from families with a lower status on the moshav. Walzer would pick them up from the school or the synagogue in his car, and sometimes molest them in the mikveh (ritual bath ).
Over the years, residents say, people lowered their voices when they spoke about incidents they had seen: the flash of naked bodies through the windows of a parked car, a boy groping with Walzer among the bushes, suspicious movements near the mikveh.
Some claimed with self-conviction that their children weren't among the victims. "I have girls and he abused boys," said one woman, though the suspicion is that Walzer abused both sexes.
"I worked in the cow barn all day. My main concern was always supporting my family," said another resident. "I am shocked. But the truth is, I don't dare ask my children whether they were molested."
Children were warned to stay away from Walzer. "From a very young age, we knew he was dangerous," related one inhabitant.
Complaints were made, however, to the moshav's rabbinical establishment. From the testimony, it emerges that they were silenced time after time with the pretext that the matter would be dealt with, or that the incidents were not current.
In fact, parents' protest led to the termination of Walzer's work as a teacher 18 years ago. Instead, he was given offices in the school building where he established a workshop for making tefillin (phylacteries ).
One witness told investigators that when the parents protested yet again, a functionary was brought in from Jerusalem and put in charge of dealing with Walzer. However, in the end, say investigators, it was decided to distance Walzer from the moshav and he was sent abroad to raise money.
As long as the police were not let in on the secret, however, the acts continued, according to the suspicion.
'Not in my time'
The extent of the denial pervading the moshav emerges from testimony that one community council member gave investigators. The witness related a series of "rumors" involving residents, whom he named. Among them were some whom Walzer purportedly abused when they were minors, and others apparently abused by other people.
When the investigators asked why he hadn't complained to the police, the man replied: "The incidents occurred in the past, not in my time. We were not able to know exactly when." He added that, "the victim who is harmed doesn't tell and it's natural that way. And from what I hear, most of the parents of the children who were harmed didn't hear a thing and didn't know anything about it ... They were afraid to ask the children so as not to traumatize them. I can't remember exactly when and with which parents I talked about Shimshon and they said it was an old story and nothing could be done about it, and above all it would harm matches [for marriages] for their children if made public. We are afraid that would be more harmful."
Asked why he was telling the story today, the witness said: "We want an end to it for the sake of our children." Later he recalled that one of the victims, who had in fact complained against the other suspect, had told him two years ago about the sexual abuse he had undergone.
The police visited the homes of people who might have been abused as children and asked them to testify; they also went to yeshivas in Bnei Brak where there are people who may have been in contact with the suspect. Many did not cooperate. Others, who agreed, changed their minds after they were apparently threatened. However, a few of the victims did file complaints.
From their testimony it emerges that even though revealing their secret was a relief, this did not suffice to convince them to complain formally or to confront the attackers. "I don't feel good about it. He is old," one said.
Parents of minors did not cooperate for fear their testimony would harm their sons' chances of a good marriage match. As a result, most of the complainants in the case are adults who have no connection with the moshav now, and some have given up a religious lifestyle.
Only today, 20 years later, has one of the complainants against Walzer told what exactly happened. He was 9 years old when Walzer offered him a ride home from the synagogue. "It was in the evening, but I didn't suspect anything because he had been my 'rebbe' the previous year," he relates. "The truth is, I was even glad to ride with him in the car."
Walzer did not take him home, but rather to a chicken coop at the edge of the moshav. "I was a naive child," relates the complainant. "He started to take off my pants and play with my body. When I resisted, he took his gartel (a thin belt worn by Hasids ) and tied me to him. I don't remember how long it lasted or how I got home."
He did not reveal what he already knew - that "it was a routine thing to go with [Walzer]," as he says. "Friends talked about what they did with him; sexual things that shouldn't be happening to children."
"Until we heard about what happened to our son, I didn't know there was such a thing," relates one woman, whose son complained. "My big sons wanted to beat him up and kill him, but we felt sorry for his wife and his children."
Today, in retrospect, she is remorseful. "I ask myself, what did I do? How did I relate to it? We just yelled that they should kick him out of the school and we believed the principal. Why didn't we go to the police?"
Despite the acts of which he is suspected, about which everyone supposedly knew, Walzer was put in charge of the synagogue and renovated it at his own expense. One local person commented bitterly: "Apparently in order to get respect in the moshav, you have to rape children." The speaker and his family are among the few who, even though they did not have the courage to turn to the police because they feared din moser (the duty to eliminate a Jew who intends to turn another Jew in to non-religious authorities ), fought Walzer in ways acceptable in ultra-Orthodox society: First, they spoke to the principal of the school and the rabbi of the moshav and subsequently they testified at a rabbinical court in Bnei Brak, but to no avail.
The finger of blame in the moshav is now pointed at the accusers. They are being shunned. They are not called up to say the blessings from the Torah in the synagogue on the Sabbath. No one is speaking to them. Their children have no one to play with.
Nor does the complainant against the other suspect feel relief as a result of the indictment. He will soon be 20 years old. According to the charges, for about four years, from age 9 to 13, he would be called over by the suspect during se'udah shilishit (the traditional late-afternoon meal on the Sabbath ) in the synagogue, and undergo abuse behind a hedge near the mikveh.
"The first time, I went in all innocence. I didn't resist," the complainant told Haaretz. "I froze to the spot. I didn't understand what was happening." The longer the acts continued and became more sophisticated, the more ashamed he was: "I knew it wasn't right. I was in total shock. I was in pain."
He says he was raped twice, and each time the suspect warned him to keep mum. He explains that he obeyed because it is a principle in ultra- Orthodox society to obey every adult. He adds that the abuse stopped when he reached the age of 13, and that he dropped out of the yeshiva a short time later.
During the police inquiry, it emerged that two years ago an investigation was opened against this same complainant on the grounds that he himself had abused a minor, but the case was closed for lack of evidence.
He says he told the police investigators he was "sorry I had unwittingly harmed another child." In a conversation with him last month, he said: "When I look at my brothers, I don't know if they are happy but they are married and they have a normal life. I look at myself. From the age of 16 I've been living away from home, looking after myself. And I don't have anyone to cry to. To my mind, the ultra-Orthodox are hypocritical people. My mother said to me, 'The whole moshav doesn't need to suffer because of you.' I am not angry at my mother. She is afraid. I went home to her and I told her everything. She said she didn't know about it, that the deeds were done a long time ago, that it's passed. What hurts most is she didn't come with me to complain."
Attorneys Yehuda Fried and Tal Gabay, who are representing the two suspects, have informed Haaretz that Walzer went to the United States "on a routine mission on behalf of the moshav's educational institutions, even before he knew he was wanted for questioning ... When he decides to return to Israel he will fight to clear his name.
"As an addendum to this investigation the name of our [other] client came up, also as a suspect in similar offenses. The complainant in the case was questioned in the past as a suspect in acts of sodomy with minors, a case that was closed because of difficulties in proving the evidence against him. The complainant was expelled from ultra-Orthodox society because of unsuitability. Any reasonable person who reads the complainant's testimony against our client understands this is a complainant who, to put it mildly, is suffering from problems of credibility, and it is obvious he has a desire to harm ultra-Orthodox society in general and the Walzer family in particular. We believe his testimony will not hold up at all."
The lawyers added: "The court, in a series of decisions, released our client from detention. We believe we will be able to convince the honorable court of our client's innocence."
http://www.haaretz.com/magazine/week-s-end/a-victim-in-every-home-1.306386
17 aug 2010
Prosecution: Katsav regarded workers as sex objects
Former President Moshe Katsav
Prosecution, defense's summary in former president's rape case cleared for publication. Prosecution claims Katsav used his position to carry out 'acts of clearly sexual nature on various levels of severity', says women 'feared for their jobs,' which affected their ability to resist. Meanwhile, defense claims Katsav being 'demonized'
Former President Moshe Katsav, who has been charged with rape, indecent acts and sexual assault "regarded the women working under him as a reserve from which he would select sexual objects," the prosecution said. The Tel Aviv District Court cleared the prosecution and defense's summaries for publication on Tuesday.
The prosecution argued that the former president's testimony in court was not credible and unreliable, and was meant to blind the court, sometimes by using lies. The prosecution also claimed that Katsav slandered anyone he felt was against him.
Prosecutor Ronit Amiel claimed in court that when Katsav came across women that suited his sexual interests, he would use his position and status in the ministries in which he served and the female workers' desire to establish themselves professionally in order to take advantage of them.
"During they time in his presence, the defendant sexually assaulted the female workers and carried out acts of a clearly sexual nature with them on various levels of severity, including rape. The defendant's high position and the large gap between his status and the minor position of his victims, which were under his bidding and feared for their jobs, significantly influenced their ability to resist, while the acts were happening, and afterwards."
The prosecution claimed the complainants feared that if they resisted, this could affect their jobs and that the exposure of the events would take a heavy emotional toll. "All this," the prosecution claimed, "influenced the ways in which the complainants handled Katsav's behavior and led them to resist in a gentle and calculated way."
Defense: They demonized Katsav
Meanwhile, the defense claimed in court the prosecution is "presenting the defendant as Bluebeard, the monstrous figure from the Grimm brothers' fairytale who murdered his six wives and buried their bodies in the cellar." Attorneys Avigdor Feldman and Zion Amir said that since the prosecution is running out of evidence, it is turning to tales of monsters to make its case.
The defense claimed that the prosecution was pressured into filing the indictment against the former president, and said that without this pressure it would have closed the case long ago and withdrawn the allegations.
The defense said it is uncertain that Katsav would receive justice in the court and be tried without prejudice. "We would be lying if we didn't say we have doubts, and ask ourselves every day during the hearings and summaries whether an ocean of hatred and slander spread in the media doesn't lie between us and the honorable panel of judges."
Nonetheless, the defense added, "If we didn't believe in the court system and it's ability to ignore all that was said about the defendant over the years, we would throw in the towel."
Katsav is charged with two counts of rape and sexual assault against a woman who worked with him at the Tourism Ministry and sexual harassment of his secretary at the President's Residence. He is also accused of indecent assault and sexual harassment against another woman who worked with him during his presidential term, as well as harassing a witness.
10 jan 2010
Katsav testifies for 1st time in rape trial
Tel Aviv District Court hears former president's version on serious allegations that he sexually assaulted workers.
Former President Moshe Katsav arrived Sunday morning at the Tel Aviv District Court to deliver his version on the serious allegations against him. He was accompanied by his brother, Lior, and other relatives. Katsav was to testify behind closed doors in front of Judges George Karra, Miriam Sokolov and Judith Shevach.
The accusations against Katsav include two rape charges and sexual assault against a woman who worked with him at the Tourism Ministry and sexual harassment of his secretary ay the President's Residence. He is also accused of indecent assault and sexual harassment against another woman who worked with him during his presidential term, as well as harassing a witness.
In the past few months, the court heard the testimonies of the complainants, who were also cross-examined by Katsav's lawyer. A., who served as Katsav's bureau chief during his term as tourism minister, testified about three weeks ago. Her testimony cannot be published as it was given behind closed doors.
In her testimony to the police, A. said that the harassment began shortly after she was hired by the minister. According to the indictment, in April 1998, following an event in Tel Aviv, he returned with her to the office claiming he had forgotten something there, and raped her.
"I don't remember how I found myself on the floor. He came and lay over me and I pushed him," A. told the police. The second rape allegedly took place two months later at a Jerusalem hotel, when the minister attacked his bureau chide, told her, "Relax, you'll enjoy it," and forced himself on her as she tried to stop him.
The State Prosecutor's Office noted in the indictment that A. did not complain against her boss for fear of losing her job, and yet he fired her a year after the alleged rape. Only after the affair was revealed following a complaint filed by another woman who worked at the President's Residence, the investigators reached the key complainant and persuaded her to testify.
The second charge, sexual harassment, refers to H. who worked at the President's Residence. "In several incidents, following work meetings, the defendant walked the complainant to the door, and before she left his office he hugged her %u2013 each time for 10 seconds %u2013 while moving his body close to hers," the prosecution said.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3831971,00.html
11 dec.2009
Katsav changes positions, favors closed-door trial
Former president's attorneys originally motioned that media be granted access to trial hearings citing 'the public's right to know.' During Supreme Court hearing on Tuesday legal defense team changes positions, requests content of proceedings be withheld
The defense team representing former President Moshe Katsav, who is charged with rape, indecent acts and sexual harassment, has aligned itself with the court and State Prosecutor's Office's position and motioned that the media not be allowed inside trial hearings or to publish the content of proceedings.
The step constitutes a dramatic turnaround from the legal team's original standpoint at the beginning of the trial. At the time, Katsav's attorneys claimed that the trial should be open to the public and that proceedings should be made available, citing the public's right to know.
During a Supreme Court hearing on Tuesday regarding Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth's motion to publish the proceedings, Katsav's attorney Avraham Lavi claimed that an open-court trial may "contaminate the testimonies in the trial" and disrupt normal proceedings.
Attorney Lavi further added that the "reality of closed-doors has proved itself" and claimed it was the most effective way of isolating the trial from the mass public. After hearing both parties' arguments, Supreme Court Justice Salim Jubran turned the matter over to a panel of three judges
Last June the Tel Aviv District Court ruled that the former president's trial would be held behind closed doors and that the content of some of the hearings would be made public once they are adjourned.
The court explained its ruling by stating that there was "reasonable fear that his (Katsav's) testimony will include details which may reveal the complainants' identity and violate their privacy."
Katsav's attorneys then claimed that the trial should be open since the complainants had already forgone their privacy by giving extensively detailed interviews relating what the defendant had allegedly done to them.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3804508,00.html 17 sep 2010, 23:30 , Respect -
Maria 26 aug 2010
Former non-profit head charged with embezzling millions
Money for blind children was purportedly used to cover gambling debts, trips abroad.
The state on Wednesday charged Moshe Rips, the former director-general of Keren Or The Jerusalem Center for Blind Children with Multiple Disabilities, with stealing close to NIS 4 million over a period of 20 years.
In the indictment, which was filed with the Tel Aviv District Court, the state accused Rips of using the money to cover gambling debts, trips abroad and personal or family expenses.
The indictment includes five separate charges, based on the different methods he used to steal from the NGO.
According to the first charge, the defendant stole NIS 1,993,224 by writing checks in the name of Keren Or to various beneficiaries that had no business connections with it or had not provided services. On the stub, he either fabricated what the check was paid out for or did not write anything.
For these actions, he was charged with theft by a director (126 violations), obtaining something by deceit (162 violations), false entry into documents of a corporate body (162 violations), fraud and breach of faith.
According to the fraud charge, Rips was accused of stealing NIS 1,156,390 by writing out checks in his own name. In the stubs he recorded that the money had been spent on goods and services for Keren Or.
According to the indictment, Keren Or is primarily financed by donations from the US. The rest of the money comes from the Social Welfare Ministry.
The organization's Web site states that Keren Or students range in age from infancy to young adulthood. They suffer from blindness paired with either deafness, cerebral palsy, motor dysfunction, autism, brain damage or mental retardation. Upon arrival, each child is evaluated by a team of professionals and is given a highly-specialized, personally tailored educational and therapeutic curriculum."
Recreational and informal activities arts and crafts, field trips, parties, cooking, and sports are integrated into Keren Or's daily routine of therapy and training sessions.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=186013
27 aug 2010
Former cleaning worker accused of seducing eight kids with money, sexually harassing them
Former cleaning worker accused of seducing eight kids with money, sexually harassing them
An indictment has been filed against a Jerusalem resident on charges of molestation of eight minors in a synagogue where he worked as a cleaner in 2006-2008. He is also being charged with sodomy and attempted sodomy.
The indictment, which was filed with the Jerusalem District Court, suggests that Gil Dvash, 45, offered money to children aged 8-13 and proceeded to sexually harass them. In his investigation, the suspect admitted that he had committed the acts in many incidents.
The indictment further suggests that in 2006 Dvash offered a child money in exchange for help in cleaning at a synagogue in the the Bayit Vegan neighborhood. "The defendant presented himself as a miserable man," the indictment stated, and told the child that he was "a righteous person" and should therefore receive his help.
On a separate occasion, Dvash molested a 13-year-old boy while the two were in the synagogue's shelter at night. The indictment further details incidents in which the defendant offered kids money and kissed them, at times using force.
Dvash was arrested two weeks ago after a complaint had been filed against him.
During the remand hearing, a police representative said that the community rabbis were aware of the acts but failed to inform the police. Instead, they decided to keep his away from the synagogue.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3944683,00.html
(10:27) 2 Dubai Hamas killing 'fraudulent' passports fuel Mossad suspicion. 18 sep 2010, 03:23 , Respect -
Maria 14 sept 2010
Zadorov convicted in teen girl's murder
Life imprisonment for murderer of young Tair Rada
Roman Zadorov found guilty by unanimous judicial decision of murdering the Golan teenager. Zadorov's defense lawyer claims the state chose an easy target and framed him.
Roman Zadorov is guilty in the murder of the young girl Tair Rada, a panel of three Nazareth district court judges determined on Tuesday. The court decided that "there is a web of evidence here that is credible and comprehensive."
"Standing before us is the murderer of Tair Rada," the judges said. Zadorov was sentenced to life imprisonment plus two years for obstruction of justice.
The prosecutor said after judgment was pronounced that "the court spoke loud and clear, this will put an end to the rumor mill and doubts that have been heard in the media, to pander to the public."
"We did not wage a media war, but a legal war. If any doubts arise, we will refute them, should they arise. We saw here a decisive judgment," the prosecutor added.
Judge Yitzhak Cohen also criticized the way in which the media reported on the trial. "Over the course of the case, they crossed every boundary," he wrote in the court's decision.
"They published reports that were consistently disparaging. Not all media outlets sinner, but it was more than a few. The media must do its job fearlessly, but preserving the truth," Cohen said.
Rada, an eighth grade student, was murdered on December 6, 2060 at Nofei Golan school in Katzrin. Her body was found in a locked bathroom stall close to 7 p.m. after hours of searching. Her neck was slashed and her body had stabbing wounds.
Four days after the murder 32-year-old Katzrin resident Roman Zadorov was taken for questioning. At that time Zadorov worked at the school, tiling the school basements. Two days later he was arrested.
During a week in custody, he admitted to an informant who was his cellmate that he was in fact the murderer. On December 19, 2006, he confessed to the crime and reenacted it.
One day later he recanted his confession. On Tuesday, judges in his case discounted the assertion that the reenactment was inadmissible.
"The state chose an easy target and framed him"
Zadorov's lawyer Galil Speigel said at the end of proceedings, "None of this is over, we've only just begun to fight. We will take this all the way to the Supreme Court."
"I am no less sure of myself than the judges. The state chose an easy target and framed him. There are many contradictions and illogic in the judgment," Speigel continued.
Zadorov's wife Olga said that her husband "is in jail for no reason. He didn't do anything. I'm not giving up, we'll go all the way to prove his innocence."
Rada's parents, Ilana and Shmuel, who were present at all court proceedings, broke out in tears when the judgment was read out. During the course of the trial, the girl's mother raised doubts about Zadorov's guilt while Shmuel Rada said he was convinced that the accused was guilty.
But Ilana Rada's brother Uri Massas, the victim's uncle, said on Tuesday, "Today we have faith that the murderer is under lock and key. There were doubts, but today's court decision was unequivocal."
http://bit.ly/aquoxg
Zadorov convicted in teen girl's murder
Zadorov in court
One of most mysterious, shocking murder cases Israel has known comes to an end after four years. Victim Tair Rada's mother says has already lost faith in justice system. Zadorov's wife: This state is corrupt.
Nearly four years after Tair Rada was brutally murdered in a Katzrin school lavatory, one of the most mysterious and horrifying murder affairs Israel has known has come to an end. The Nazareth District court on Tuesday convicted Roman Zadorov in the murder of the 13-year-old girl.
Tair Rada. Case closed
Minutes before the hearing began, Tair's mother Ilana said, "As far as I'm concerned anything to do with the court, the prosecution and the police is pure delinquency. They abandoned my daughter."
"We have no doubt the defendant before us is Tair Rada's murderer. His testimony is abundant in lies, manipulations and inconsistencies. He did not provide explanations. The defendant knew at least seven details no one else could have known,' the verdict read.
"The defendant lied in court without hesitation when he believed it might serve his interests," the verdict further noted. It was also stated that Zadorov tried to manipulate his investigators and was not loathe to lie to his own lawyer.
Zadorov in court Tuesday (Photo: Hagai Aharon)
The honorable Esther Helman and Haim Galpaz leveled harsh criticism at the media's role in covering the affair and accused it of false and biased reporting.
Judge Yitzhak Cohen, in turn, criticized the police and prosecution of using the media to argue their respective cases.
Attorney Sheila Inbar, of the Northern District's Prosecutor's Office, told Ynet: "We had no doubt the truth would come out." She further added," What is most important is the public can rest assured that the murderer is behind bars."
False optimism
On Monday, Zadorov was still optimistic. "I believe in the Israeli justice system and therefore it is impossible for me to go to prison. I do not believe that an innocent person will be sent for life," he told his friends.
"Should they decided to convict me I will be paying for my stupid mistake of babbling to the investigator and my reenactment, done when I didn't even know what I was supposed to do," he said.
Tair's mother Ilana. Lost faith in system
Zadorov has a four-year-old son from his wife Olga, who has been raising the child alone since her husband was arrested. "The child does not know him," she said Monday.
Despite her husband's conviction, Olga continues to believe he is innocent and slammed the law enforcement authorities on Tuesday. "The State is corrupt. Everyone here, lawyers and officers, continue to convict people and set them up because they get away with it, " she said.
"If necessary I'll turn to the president because the state is doing nothing," she added. "The time schedule shows he wasn't at the school when the child was in the lavatory."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3953839,00.html
19 dec 2006
Suspect in murder of 13-year-old Tair Rada retracts confession
Wife of Roman Zadarov: Police pressured my husband to confess; suspect admits to history of violence.
The prime suspect in the murder of a teenager at a Golan Heights high school retracted his confession Wednesday, claiming he was under intense pressure to confess during his interrogation.
Katzrin resident Roman Zadorov, 29, confessed Tuesday to the murder of a 13-year-old Tair Rada, whose body was found two weeks ago in the bathroom of the Nofei Golan High School.
Nonetheless, Zadorov admitted Wednesday that he has had a history of violent outbursts in the past.
Zadorov's wife, Olga, said Wednesday that her husband "doesn't know to act violently," and that she is convinced he is innocent.
Speaking on Channel 2 television she said her husband linked himself to the murder because "police pressured him to confess."
Police believe Zadarov was seized by a fit of anger following an argument with Rada, and as a result murdered her. He said these spasms were similar to those he had suffered from in the past, which he had directed toward his family.
The suspect related the sequence of events to investigators Tuesday, but did not disclose his motives for the murder.
The investigation has also revealed that Zadorov is not an Israeli citizen. Zadarov is believed to have entered Israel as a tourist in 2002, and was employed on the basis of forged work permits. In 2005 he married an Israeli woman and applied for citizenship.
Zadarov will face an extension of his remand Thursday at the Acre Magistrate's Court.
Zadarov, who worked as a contractor at the school where Rada studied, was the third suspect to be arrested in the case. The other two suspects - a gardener and a homeless man - were released from police custody soon after detention due to lack of evidence.
The northern district police chief said Wednesday that the Rada case was "closed."
"We have plenty of material, partial confession and reconstruction of events, that unilaterally rule that Zadarov is the murderer," he said.
Katzrin residents gathered at the police station Tuesday evening to hear the results of the investigation, after Rada's parents, Shmuel and Ilana, were told of Zadarov's confession.
Zadarov's acquaintances said they found it hard to believe that he would have committed such a crime. Ronen Hazan, who owns a hardware store where Zadarov frequently visited, called Zadarov a good person.
"If it really is him ... I cannot believe it," he said.
Rada's body was found on December 6 in a bathroom stall in the Nofei Golan school, where she was enrolled as a student. Police initially believed Rada was murdered as a consequence of teen violence.
http://bit.ly/cjKjxj
18 sep 2010, 03:28 , Respect -
Maria 12 sept 2010
Israeli suspected in $2.6 million Namibia diamond heist
Erez Ben Shushan released on bail of 100,000 Namibia dollars, his passport confiscated and put under heavy police watch.
OKAHANDJA, Namibia - An Israeli man was arrested in Namibia in connection with stolen diamonds worth some $2.6 million, according to an official police announcement released on Friday. The gems were reportedly stolen from NamGen, a Namibian polishing company.
A police official who asked not to be identified said: "We can confirm the arrest of an Israeli national, Erez Ben Shushan, who appeared in the magistrate court of Okahandja on Wednesday," as reported in Agence France-Presse.
"Shushan was released on bail of 100,000 Namibia dollars (14,000 US dollars ), his passport was confiscated and he must report to the Okahandja police station three times per week," the official added. Okahandja is located approximately 70 kilometers north of Windhoek, the African country's capital
According to initial reports, a safe at NamGem's Okahandja office was robbed of both polished and unpolished diamonds last Wednesday. The firm is a subsidiary of the Namdeb diamond company, which is co-run by the De Beers firm and the Namibian government.
The accused Israeli, Shushan, held at least two known positions: At NamGem he worked as production manager, while also serving as a representative for the U.S.-based diamond manufacturer and distributor, Lazare Kaplan International.
After last year's global economic crisis, which saw a 40 percent drop in Namdeb's revenue, the company reports that in the first half of 2010 its diamond production has more than doubled when compared to the parallel period of 2009.
http://bit.ly/d8JCwX
10 sept 2010
Namibia: Israeli arrested over diamond heist
Erez Ben Shushan, suspected of involvement in theft of $2.6 million worth of diamonds from company he worked for, released on bail, his passport confiscated.
An Israeli national was arrested in Namibia in connection with the theft of diamonds worth $2.6 million from a Namibian polishing company, police said on Friday.
"We can confirm the arrest of on Israeli national, Erez Ben Shushan, who appeared in the magistrate court of Okahandja on Wednesday," a police official, who did not want to be named, told AFP.
"Shushan was released on bail of (about $14,000), his passport was confiscated and he must report to the Okahandja police station three times per week," said the official.
Polished and unpolished diamonds were stolen from a safe at NamGem, a subsidiary of the Namdeb diamond company, a joint venture of the Namibian government and De Beers.
The theft occurred on Wednesday at NamGem's offices in Okahandja, some 70 kilometers north of the capital, Windhoek.
Shushan was production manager at NamGem and also a representative of Lazare Kaplan International, a diamond manufacturing and distribution company based in United States.
Diamond exports are still rebounding from the global economic crisis last year, which slashed Namdeb's revenue by 40 percent.
Namdeb now says diamond production more than doubled in the first six months of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009.
http://bit.ly/9sIwbY 18 sep 2010, 03:36 , Respect -
Maria 14 sept 2010
Group says Israel rarely investigates civilian deaths
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israel rarely holds its soldiers accountable for killing Palestinian civilians, an Israeli human rights group says.
B'Tselem's report, which analyzes the policy of the Judge Advocate General's Office over the past four years, says the main reason for this situation is that the army refrains, as a rule, from conducting a Military Police investigation in cases in which soldiers kill Palestinian civilians.
Research also shows routing procrastination in making decisions on files for many months, even years.
The report, Void of Responsibility: Israel Military Policy not to investigate Killings of Palestinians by Soldiers, issued Tuesday, deals with events between 2006 and 2009 in which soldiers killed Palestinian civilians who were not taking part in hostilities.
Since the beginning of the intifada, we have opposed the sweeping decision not to investigate the killing of Palestinians, executive director Jessica Montell said. This is even truer now, when it is impossible to view the situation in the West Bank as armed conflict. The legal status must reflect the reality in the field, as well as express the value given to human life and the obligation to protect civilians.
The report offers recommendations to the defense establishment, the foremost being a change in the legal definition of the situation in the West Bank, eliminating its classification as one of armed conflict.
In addition, B'Tselem calls on the Judge Advocate Generals Office to adopt the guidelines recently submitted by Israel's attorney general regarding the proper timeframes for handling files.
The military said in a statement that it responded to B'Tselem's allegations on a case by case basis. B'Tselem confirmed receiving responses but called them unsatisfactory.
"The remaining claims are still under examination in accordance with standard investigative policies," the army said. "It should be noted that any individual who believes he or she has been adversely affected by a particular decision is entitled to appeal that decision and even to petition the attorney general or the High Court of Justice on the matter."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=314965
12 sept 2010
Former Chief of Staff's bodyguard appeals prison sentence
Erez Efrati, the former bodyguard of the IDF Chief of Staff, launched an appeal on Sunday against an eight-year-sentence he received after being convicted of attempting to sexually assault a 22-year-old woman.
In July, Efrati was sentenced after pleading guilty to attempted sexual assault. As part of the plea bargain, the court dropped charges of attempted rape, and in addition to his sentence, Efrati received a two years' suspended sentence and was ordered to pay the victim NIS 150,000.
But Efrati disputed the justice of his conviction on Sunday at the Tel Aviv District Court, claiming that his earlier conviction had failed to take into account his level of intoxication during the incident.
Efrati added in his appeal that no significant physical harm had been caused to the young woman during the incident - an argument that sparked an outraged condemnation from Dr. Dana Pugach, head of the Noga Center for Victims of Crime at the Ono Academic College.
Pugach, who has acted as a spokeswoman for the woman who was attacked by Efrati, said Efrati's claim regarding physical harm was "outrageous and shocking" in light of the fact that he attempted to harm her and was stopped just in time by a passer-by.
http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=187855 18 sep 2010, 03:37 , Respect -
Maria 18 sept 2010
Israeli-linked organ dealers busted
South Africa's biggest healthcare company Netcare has been implicated in an illegal kidney transplant plot.
The biggest health care firm in South Africa has been charged with cooperating with an Israeli-linked organ trafficking syndicate.
The South African government said that the head of the Netcare company and a director of the St. Augustine's Hospital in Durban, Richard Friedland, had been aware of illegal kidney trade at the hospital, but "nevertheless permitted these operations" to take place, South African daily The Times reported on Wednesday.
The police said that wealthy Israelis paid organ dealers between 2001 and 2003, the year when the ring was exposed, the German Press Agency (DPA) reported.
"Israeli citizens in need of kidney transplants would be brought to South Africa for transplants at St. Augustine's Hospital," read the charge sheet.
"They paid kidney suppliers for these operations. [The kidneys] were initially sourced from Israeli citizens, but later Romanian and Brazilian citizens were recruited as their kidneys were obtainable at a much lower cost than those of the Israeli suppliers," it added.
An Israeli middleman, named Ilan Perry, received between USD 97,676 and USD 118,607 to arrange for the operations.
This is while, those who provided the kidneys were paid approximately between USD 6,000 and USD 20,000.
Five notable South African physicians, working in Durban have also been charged in the illegal organ-trafficking case.
The report also said that Netcare is being charged with setting up the syndicate with the assistance of prominent kidney specialist Jeffrey Kallmeyer and Perry.
The report comes as earlier last year, another report surfaced about an Israeli plot to kidnap children and harvest their organs.
According to the report, some 25,000 Ukrainian children had been brought into Israel over the past two years to be used by Israeli medical centers for their "spare parts."
The Israeli military is also accused of stealing the organs of Palestinian prisoners.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/143002.html
9 sept 2010
U.S. court bails Israeli for $1m in human traficking case
Mordechai Orian, head of Los Angeles-based Global Horizons Manpower Inc., accused of involvement in importing and exploiting 400 workers from Thailand.
A federal judge has set bail at $1 million for the chief executive of a labor recruiting company accused of importing and exploiting 400 workers from Thailand.
Forty-five-year-old Mordechai Orian, head of Los Angeles-based Global Horizons Manpower Inc., was ordered Wednesday to be held in federal custody until he can raise the money.
KITV reports federal prosecutors claim Orian, an Israeli national, is a flight risk. They had sought to keep him in custody until his trial, and they plan to appeal.
Orian is accused in what the FBI calls the largest human-trafficking case charged in U.S. history.
He was indicted last week on charges that he lured the workers with false promises of lucrative jobs, then confiscated their passports, failed to honor their employment contracts and threatened to deport them.
His public relations agency has said he complied with the FBI in negotiating his surrender in Honolulu.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/u-s-court-bails-israeli-for-1m-in-human-traficking-case-1.313035
5 sept 2010
Israeli says not guilty of 'largest human trafficking case in U.S. history'
Mordechair Orian
Los Angeles-based Global Horizons Manpower CEO Mordechai Orian, 45, surrendered to federal authorities in Honolulu earlier Friday, a day after the FBI had tried to arrest him at his Southern California home but found he wasn't there.
The Israeli head of a labor recruiting company accused of exploiting 400 workers from Thailand and forcing them to work on U.S. farms pleaded not guilty Friday, in part of what the Federal Bureau of Investigation calls the largest human-trafficking case U.S. history. Los Angeles-based Global Horizons Manpower CEO Mordechai Orian, 45, surrendered to federal authorities in Honolulu earlier Friday, a day after the FBI had tried to arrest him at his Southern California home but found he wasn't there.
Although the FBI had been investigating Global Horizons for a number of years, when an arrest warrant was served on Orian, it appeared to come as a surprise. Although he was on a business trip to Texas when federal agents descended on his Malibu home, his wife said they handcuffed her and by her account acted aggressively without any justification. Orian denies all the allegations against him, and expressed hope that he would be released on bond by Wednesday, despite a prosecution request that he be held until the end of legal proceedings.
On Thursday, Orian's public relations adviser, Kara Lujan, was asked by her client to conduct negotiations with the FBI for his surrender. She said Federal agents agreed to a surrender in Hawaii on the condition that they would be shown an airplane ticket to the state. She said he landed in Honolulu and took a taxi to his lawyer's office, where FBI representatives were waiting, as agreed. Lujan said Global Horizons has not been in business for four years and that Orian was working with other companies.
Three of his employees and two Thailand-based recruiters also were charged in an indictment announced Thursday. Orian appeared in Honolulu federal court with his ankles chained. He was represented by a court-appointed attorney based on his contention that he couldn't afford one himself. He faces a maximum sentence of 70 years imprisonment. He was ordered deported from the United States last year, but has remained in the country during his appeal.
U.S. Attorney Susan French called Orian's arrest a major saga because his public relations agency had told authorities varying stories that he was in Los Angeles, Texas and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Contrary to Lujan's statement, she said they didn't know his whereabouts until he had already caught a taxi from the Honolulu airport.
Of the four U.S. defendants named in the indictment, three have been arrested and the FBI agreed to allow the fourth to appear in court for his first appearance next week. The federal government intends to work with Thai authorities to apprehend the two suspects there.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israeli-says-not-guilty-of-largest-human-trafficking-case-in-u-s-history-1.312199
4 sept 2010
Israeli nabbed in 'largest human trafficking case in U.S. history'
6 suspects face up to 70 years in prison for luring Thai workers to U.S. with false promises and withholding their passports, subjecting them to terrible conditions.
Six recruiters were accused Thursday of luring 400 laborers from Thailand to the United States and forcing them to work, according to a federal indictment that the FBI called the largest human-trafficking case ever charged in U.S. history.
The indictment alleges that the scheme was orchestrated by four employees of labor recruiting company Global Horizons Manpower Inc. and two Thailand-based recruiters. It said the recruiters lured the workers with false promises of lucrative jobs, then confiscated their passports, failed to honor their employment contracts and threatened to deport them.
According to CNN, Israeli national and Global Horizons CEO Mordechai Orian, 45, has been charged with leading the conspiracy.
Once the Thai laborers arrived in the United States starting in May 2004, they were put to work and have since been sent to sites in states including Hawaii, Washington, California, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah, according to attorneys and advocates.
Many laborers were initially taken to farms in Hawaii and Washington, where work conditions were the worst, said Chancee Martorell, executive director for the Los Angeles-based Thai Community Development Center, which represents 263 Thai workers who were brought to the U.S. by Global Horizons.
A woman who answered the phone at Global Horizons' Los Angeles office refused to take a message seeking comment Thursday.
The six defendants include Orian; Director of International Relations Pranee Tubchumpol, 44; Hawaii regional supervisor Shane Germann, 41; and onsite field supervisor Sam Wongsesanit, 39. The Thailand recruiters were identified as Ratawan Chunharutai and Podjanee Sinchai.
They face maximum sentences ranging from five years to 70 years in prison, according to the Department of Justice.
Orian wasn't home when the FBI attempted to arrest him in Los Angeles on Thursday, but his surrender is being negotiated, said FBI Special Agent Tom Simon. Orian's attorney, Alan Diamante, didn't return a phone message seeking comment.
Two were arrested Thursday morning in Los Angeles and Fargo, N.D., said Simon. Another Global Horizons employee was expected to turn himself in, and the United States will work with Thailand's government to apprehend the remaining two suspects.
"In the old days, they used to keep slaves in their places with whips and chains. Today it's done with economic threats and intimidation," Simon said.
Honolulu immigration attorney Melissa Vincenty said the indictment against Global Horizons is a major blow to labor trafficking nationwide.
"Global was the big fish in all of this. It's a pretty big case, with hundreds and hundreds of workers," said Vincenty, who represents 56 of the Thai laborers. "They're all over the United States."
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/israeli-nabbed-in-largest-human-trafficking-case-in-u-s-history-1.312164
LA: Israeli charged with human-trafficking
Mordechai Orian, CEO of manpower firm, suspected of forcing 400 Thai laborers to work on US farms
The Israeli head of a labor recruiting company accused of exploiting 400 workers from Thailand and forcing them to work on US farms is under arrest and pleading not guilty.
Los Angeles-based Global Horizons Manpower Inc. CEO Mordechai Orian surrendered Friday in Honolulu, and he entered his not guilty plea in federal court shortly afterward.
Orian, wearing chains around his ankles in court, is being held at the Honolulu Federal Detention Center until a hearing next week.
The FBI had attempted to arrest Orian at his home in Los Angeles on Thursday. Orian, three of his employees and two Thailand-based recruiters were charged in an indictment Thursday.
The FBI says it is the largest human-trafficking case ever charged in US history.
If he is convicted, Orian faces up to 70 years in prison the maximum sentence for human-trafficking.
The indictments against Orian and Pranee Tubchumpol, the company's director of international relations, charge them with enticing Thai workers onto planes headed to the US and then confiscating their passports and forcing them into debt, in order to "compel the workers%u2019 labor and service through threats to have them arrested, deported or sent back to Thailand, knowing the workers could not pay off their debts if sent home".
The company's aim was to "obtain cheap, compliant labor" from the workers, the indictment adds. The scheme is believed to have been carried out in the period between May of 2004 and September of 2005.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3949107,00.html
19 aug 2010
Israel-Ukraine human organ trafficking
(2:43) Israel-Ukraine human organ trafficking - PressTV 100819 1 x viewed
20 sep 2010, 23:27 , Respect -
Maria 17 aug 2010
Abir's father: 'Soldiers are victims too'
After court rules State must compensate Palestinian family for daughter's death by rubber bullet fired by Border Guard officers in 2007, father Bassam Aramin says officers product of 'delinquent society still living the Holocaust they took their frustration out on 10-year-old girl'
"I hope the soldiers who murdered my daughter are brought to justice," said Bassam Aramin, the father of Abir Aramin after the court ruled that the State of Israel must compensate her family for her death.
However, he is not placing all the blame on the Border Guard officers whose rubber bullets killed his daughter. "I think the solders are the victims of their delinquent society, a society that seems to still be living the Holocaust, and thinks that Abir is part of the Nazi machine that exterminated millions of Jews and they therefore took their frustration and anger out on a 10-year-old girl. Maybe I should actually sue Germany," the father said.
Abir was killed in January 2007 near her school in the village of Anta north of Jerusalem, where Border Guard forces were dispersing a violent riot. Police adamantly claimed that according to the autopsy, the child was killed from a stone but a week after the incident, her family, with the help of the B'Tselem organization, published a pathologist's report stating she was hit by a rubber bullet.
The family petitioned the High Court of Justice and demanded proceedings be opened against the officers a petition which has yet to be heard. In addition, the family filed a civil suit against the State. In this lawsuit, the Jerusalem District Court ruled Monday that the girl was indeed hit by a rubber bullet, which was fired against protocol, and that the State was negligent and must therefore compensate the family. The sum of the compensation has yet to be determined.
'I want them to be punished'
"I cannot blame an 18-year-old boy for shooting an innocent 10-year-old girl," said the father, who is known for his activity in the Combatants for Peace organization and his ties with Israeli peace activists. "There is something behind this, and it's the government's policies and the narrative his state has instilled in him. But still, I want them to be punished. I hope it doesn't end where it stands today."
Aramin said despite fears that the truth may be "swept under the rug", which he says in an Israeli norm with regards to Palestinian victims, "I would very much like to hope that the two will be punished, because it can't be that the killer will be freely drinking beers while I am burning inside. We cannot forget the bleeding wound. Just this morning something happened that reminded me and her mother of her, and we started crying."
He added, "When the State of Israel denied responsibility that its men are the ones who murdered my daughter, it was very bad torture. I am glad they at least recognized that their soldiers are the ones who murdered her."
'Attempts to cover up in vain'
According to Attorney Leah Zemel, who helped the family with the case, "Justice has been served, for the family and for the girl who went to by a treat after an exam. All the police and Border Guard's attempts to cover it up, were in vain. This is because things made it to court, and were so obvious and significant.
"Abir was shot with a rubber bullet from a forbidden distance and whoever fired didn't care. He knew that rubber bullet batteries were being fired everywhere, and the bullets' routes could not be controlled. This is why it reached the adjacent street and hit the girl in the head. Afterwards those responsible fled the scene, and covered for themselves as usual, with the IDF and Border Guard standing behind them and not bothering to look into it."
According to Zemel, "without the hard work of the Yesh Din organization, Attorney Michael Sfard, and Attorney Ghadad Hleihel, the truth wouldn't have come out."
Of the girl's father, Zemel said, "He represents the stream that calls for peace in the society from which he comes, and now, his daughter has been killed as well. This is why the court ruled on a just end to this grim affair. There is hope that in other cases of innocent people being injured as a result of the use of crowd dispersal weapons, justice will be served."
Adar Greivski, who also helped the family with its campaign to have the incident probed said, "The court finally ruled that the version of the family and the eyewitnesses is the real version, and that the Border Guard lied and tried to whitewash what happened. I am glad responsibility will be placed with the relevant bodies, and I hope the security forces draw the necessary conclusions to refrain from harming the civilian population."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3938087,00.html
16 Aug 2010
Court: State responsible for Palestinian girl's death
Jerusalem judge rules death of 10-year-old Abir Aramin from rubber bullet in 2007 due to State's negligence. 'Shooting did not target rioters or stone-throwers,' she determines. Court to rule on damages to family in October
The State is responsible for the death of 10-year-old Palestinian girl Abir Aramin in 2007 and will compensate her family, the Jerusalem District Court ruled Monday.
The court determined that the girl was killed by a stray rubber bullet fired by a Border Guard officer. According to the ruling, the shooting was the result of the State's negligence.
In addition to the civil suit, the girl's family filed an appeal with the High Court of Justice, demanding that the Israeli fighters be put on trial, this after the State Prosecutor's Office closed the case against them.
Judge Orit Efal-Gabai said in her ruling that there was no dispute that the shooting, which occurred in the West Bank village of Anata, was conducted in violation of the rules of engagement.
"The shooting did not target rioters or stone-throwers. Abir and her friends were walking down a street from which no stones were thrown at Border Guard forces. There was no apparent reason to fire in that direction," according to the ruling.
The lawsuit, which was filed by Attorney Lea Tsemel on behalf of Abir's parents in July 2007, demanded financial compensation for the family.
Judge Efal-Gabai further ruled that another hearing will be held in October to determine the amount of damages.
The ruling was based on the testimonies of Abir's friends. "They went through a very difficult experience and witnessed her (Abir's) injury," said the judge, adding that the State's version of the events, according to which Abir was hit by a stone and not a rubber bullet, was "unlikely."
Following Abir's death, her family presented a pathological report which determined that she was struck by a rubber bullet. However, Israel Police said an autopsy showed she was not killed by a rubber bullet.
Human rights group Yesh Din and Bassam Aramin, Abir's father, filed a High Court petition against the attorney general and two Border Guard officers, demanding that the officers be prosecuted.
Following the appeal, the State Prosecution announced that the girl's death would be investigated further.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3937640,00.html 21 sep 2010, 01:22 , Respect -
Maria 2 sept 2010
Convicted rapist released under house arrest
Convicted rapist Adrian Schwartz was set to be released from prison on Thursday, but will remain under house arrest for the next year between the hours of 9pm and 6am each day.
Schwartz was convicted in 2009 for raping a child in Jerusalem in 1991. The conviction was Schwartz's second for the crime. He was first convicted in 1992 but was then acquitted after appealing to the High Court of Justice.
The original indictment against Schwartz, 66, included seven counts of rape, but he was only convicted of one, for seducing a ten-year-old girl he met on the street and raping her in a warehouse in Jerusalem.
http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=186802
16 aug 2010
Shin Bet summons murder suspect, just 3 days into his house arrest.
Pearlman called for questioning
Less than three days after he was released to house arrest, alleged Jewish terrorist Chaim Pearlman was called in for questioning by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) on Sunday, Pearlman's attorney told The Jerusalem Post.
His attorney Adi Keidar said that the meeting wasn't over anything specific, it was just a standard, routine sort of thing. They were just interested in speaking to him.
The Shin Bet refused to confirm or deny the report on Sunday.
Pearlman was arrested in July on suspicion of murdering four Palestinians and attempting to murder seven more in Jerusalem in the late's. Shortly after his arrest, associates of Pearlman's gave Channel 2 audio recordings he had made, in which an alleged Shin Bet agent urged him to kill Raed Salah, the head of the Islamic Movement's Northern Branch.
Last Monday, Judge Nahum Streinlicht denied a request made by police and the Shin Bet to extend Pearlman's remand by an additional 12 days, instead agreeing to a two-day extension. Streinlicht said there was not enough evidence against Pearlman for a conviction and that the 28 days he had already been in custody should have been enough to find sufficient evidence. At last Wednesday's hearing, the judge ruled that Pearlman would be released to house arrest the next morning, following a final hearing.
During the Thursday hearing, police only appealed the length of the house arrest, which the judge increased by one day to 15 days. As a condition of his house arrest, Pearlman is banned from making any sort of contact with the other suspects implicated by the police in the case.
Outside the courthouse on Thursday, Pearlman said he had suffered abuse and humiliation at the hands of investigators while in custody.
They abused me for a month, and I am pleased that justice has seen the light of day. For 31 days they kept me imprisoned, screamed at me, cursed me, tried to humiliate me and kept me handcuffed to a chair for 18 hours, he said.
Over the weekend, the Pearlman household in Tekoa had a festive atmosphere as a constant stream of friends, family and assorted supporters came by to congratulate him for seemingly beating the charges.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=184877 22 sep 2010, 03:39 , Respect -
Maria 19 SEPT 2010
Report reveals Israeli policeman killed Palestinian in Tel Aviv intentionally
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- A research unit under the Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights released a report Saturday revealing new details in the death of Hazem Adel Abu al-Dhai'at, 22, from Old City, Jerusalem.
The Israeli policeman who shot the victim deliberately fired at him while he was on the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back, the report reads, a breakthrough which undermines the policeman's claim that he fired by mistake.
The victim's family said he was traveling to Tel Aviv with two friends when he was stopped by police upon arrival to check his ID papers. After an exchange of words, the policeman immediately cuffed the victim and placed him on the ground before firing directly at the victim and killing him on the spot. Bruises were found on the victim's forehead after his body was handed over to his family.
http://bit.ly/9wTnNF 7 oct 2010, 09:52 , Respect -
Maria 1 oct 2010
US lawyer convicted in Dead Sea Scrolls case
A Manhattan jury convicted Raphael Golb on Thursday of 30 of 31 counts against him, including identity theft, forgery and harassment.
A scholar's son was convicted Thursday of using online aliases to harass and discredit his father's detractors in a heated academic debate over the origins of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
A Manhattan jury convicted Raphael Golb on Thursday of 30 of 31 counts against him, including identity theft, forgery and harassment. He was acquitted of one count of criminal impersonation.
Prosecutors said Golb, a 50-year-old lawyer, used fake e-mail accounts and wrote blog posts under assumed names to take his father's side in an obscure but sharp-elbowed scholarly dispute over the scrolls' origins.
The more than 2,000-year-old documents, found in caves in Israel in the 1940s and '50s, contain the earliest known versions of portions of the Hebrew Bible and have provided important insight into the history of Judaism and the beginnings of Christianity.
Golb's father, 83-year-old University of Chicago Professor Norman Golb, said nearly a decade ago that Dr. Lawrence Schiffman, chairman of New York University's Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, had plagiarized his research. But he has never had to answer for it, and that so angered Golb that he broke the law, prosecutors said.
Raphael Golb, 50, created an e-mail account under Schiffman's name, then sent a message from it to Schiffman's colleagues admitting plagiarizing Norman Golb's work. Golb says his actions were not criminal. Rather, he said he was engaging in a spirited debate about the history of the texts and trying to highlight the fact that his father, a longtime scholar of the scrolls, was plagiarized by a rival professor.
Assistant District Attorney John Bandler told jurors during his closing arguments that Golb's claims are untrue.
Bandler said Golb's electronic campaign was calculated and massive, and it included the impersonation of five people, about 70 phony e-mail accounts and hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of work.
The defense summed up its case on Tuesday. Attorney David Breitbart said the real liar was Schiffman, who wrongly mounted a campaign against Golb that he took to the police.
Norman Golb and Schiffman disagree on the origins of the texts. Schiffman says the texts were assembled by a sect known as the Essenes. Professor Golb says the writings were the work of a range of Jewish groups and communities. Scholars are split on the debate; both arguments have followers.
Raphael Golb, a linguistics scholar and lawyer with degrees from Oberlin College, Harvard University and NYU, said he was angry the plagiarism accusations were never brought to light and that his father's theory was being smeared online.
He mounted an effort to expose this by creating aliases, and then crafted blog posts and e-mails. Some of the names used were real people tangentially involved in the debate. Golb said that was a coincidence.
During testimony, jurors got a history lesson on the ancient texts believed to be 2,000 years old. The scrolls, found by a Bedouin shepherd searching for a lost goat in Israel in the 1940s, include the earliest known versions of portions of the Hebrew Bible. Access to the scrolls was tightly controlled by a group known as the monopoly. Jewish scholars — including Norman Golb — were not allowed to evaluate them.
The controlled access to the scrolls continues, Raphael Golb argued during his testimony. He said his father was excluded from participating in workshops and museum exhibits on the texts while other more popular scholars were invited.
Jurors started deliberations Thursday afternoon. Bandler asked them to focus on the case in basic terms: Stealing someone's identity is wrong, and Golb knew that and did it anyway.
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=189830
3 oct 2010
Israeli reporter arrested in US
Reporter of Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper Orly Azoulay
An Israeli female journalist has been arrested in the United States for allegedly carrying marijuana, according to the Israeli media.
Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reporter Orly Azoulay and her husband CBS Radio News correspondent Howard Arenstein were arrested in Washington D.C. early Saturday.
D.C. police spokesman Lt. Nicholas Breul said the detainees were charged with possession with intent to distribute marijuana, the Associated Press reported.
Breul added that vice units had received a complaint of marijuana growing in the couple's backyard. Police then obtained a search warrant for the home in northwest D.C.
Officers found large, mature cannabis plants, standing more than 8 feet high. In addition, they found packaged marijuana inside the home, according to police.
A CBS News spokeswoman, however, declined to comment on the arrest.
Arenstein serves as both a CBS Radio News correspondent and as Radio Bureau manager for CBS News, Washington.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/144991.html
7 oct 2010
US, Israeli men 'guilty' in arms case
Members of the al-Shabab group participate in a military training exercise in Huriwaa district, southern Mogadishu, September 5, 2010.
An Israeli defense consultant and his American business partner have pled guilty to illegal arms trafficking to war-weary Somalia.
Chanoch Miller, 79, an Israeli defense consultant, contacted Joseph O'Toole, 53, a retired US Air Force colonel and aviation consultant, to help arrange the shipment of 6,000 AK-47 assault rifles from Bosnia to Somalia.
The two used falsified documents that concealed the fact that the arms were destined for Somalia, the US Justice Department said on Wednesday.
The plan was exposed when O'Toole contacted a presumed arms dealer, who was in fact working undercover for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, to arrange the export of 700 rifles from the United States through Panama to Somalia.
O'Toole and Miller each face up to five years in prison and possible fines. They will be sentenced in Florida on December 14.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
Over the past two decades, up to one million people have lost their lives in the fighting between rival factions and due to famine and diseases in the Horn of Africa nation.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/145704.html
Israeli man goes wild on Qantas flight yelling, 'You are all going to die, it is God's will'
Witnesses say man was praying in Hebrew before yelling, 'You are all going to die, it is God's will'
Crew members of a Qantas redeye flight making its way from Melbourne to Hong Kong had to forcefully subdue a young Israeli man who suddenly yelled, "You will all die" and threatened passengers, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Thursday.
A spokeswoman for the airline said the passenger "became disruptive" and that stewards had to use force to restrain him. But she would not confirm reports that the man had been praying in Hebrew.
Helen, an Australian passenger, told the Herald the man had been praying in a language she believed was Hebrew before yelling, "I'm going to kill myself, you are all going to die, it will be God's will, what will be will be, I'm going to open the door."
"The crew were fantastic, the boys held him down and subdued him and one of the female crew cuffed him," she was quoted as saying in an email. Helen added that the female crew member who cuffed the man told her he was extremely aggressive and tried to bring the plane down.
There were 280 passengers and crew members on board the flight. No one was harmed. The man, whose identity has not been publicized, was placed in the hands of Hong Kong security after landing.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3965873,00.html
US man suspected of trying to spy for Israel
Akamai Tech employee tells undercover FBI agent he is Jewish American who wants to 'help homeland'
An Akamai Technologies Inc employee was charged with trying to give confidential company information to an undercover FBI agent he thought worked for a foreign country, probably Israel, US prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Elliot Doxer, 42, worked in Akamai's finance department in Massachusetts and was charged with one count of wire fraud for providing customers lists, contract details and employee information. He sought $3,000 in return, prosecutors said.
In June 2006, Doxer e-mailed a foreign country's consulate in Boston with his offer to help. Court papers indicated the country was Israel because at one point he identified himself as a Jewish American who wanted "to help our homeland and our war against our enemies."
A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to confirm or deny that it was Israel.
A year later, an undercover FBI agent posing as a representative of the foreign country contacted Doxer to see if he still wanted to help and after he agreed, the agent provided instructions on how to communicate with him and told Doxer where to deliver the information.
Doxer was accused of visiting the drop site at least 62 times over 18 months and at one point provided contractual papers between Akamai and the US Department of Homeland Security, according to the criminal complaint.
In one letter left at the drop by Doxer, he noted he could be fired and that he was breaking the law.
"All I want is some compensation," he said according to the complaint.
At one point Doxer said he would reduce his price in exchange for pictures or information about his son who lived with his mother and stepfather in another country.
Prosecutors said the foreign government cooperated with the investigation and the complaint against Doxer did not accuse that government of seeking or obtaining the sensitive information.
Doxer could face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. It was not immediately clear if Doxer had a lawyer yet.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3965793,00.html 20 oct 2010, 21:08 , Respect -
Maria 17 oct 2010
Israelis detained for $7mn bribe offer
Police authorities in Georgia arrest Ron Fuchs and Zeev Frenkiel
A court in Georgia has ordered the detention of two Israeli businessmen on charges of offering bribes to a senior government official.
The Tbilisi City Court said in a Saturday statement that two Israeli nationals, Ron Fuchs and Zeev Frenkiel, offered a seven-million-dollar bribe to Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Avtandil Kharadze, AFP reported.
The two Israeli businessmen were arrested in the former Soviet republic of Georgia on Thursday. The court has ordered a pre-trial detention for the Israeli nationals without the possibility of bail.
According to the Georgian chief prosecutor's office, the two Israelis tried to persuade the official to influence the government not to appeal an international arbitration ruling that awarded the two a $98.1 million payment from Georgia.
The World Bank's dispute settlement center awarded the men in compensation for their financial losses back in March. They obtained rights to develop an oil pipeline and other energy infrastructure in Georgia in the early 90s.
Tbilisi terminated the deal later on. The Georgian government has demanded that the ruling be annulled.
Ioannis Kardassopoulos, a Greek business associate of Fuchs, is reportedly wanted by Georgian authorities on similar charges.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/147038.html
18 oct 2010
Police: Psychiatrist helped haredim get stipends
Doctor believed to have supplied medical opinions used by yeshiva students to swindle the state.
A senior psychiatrist with the Health Ministry is suspected of authorizing false claims made by yeshiva students, which allowed them to cheat the National Insurance Institute out of millions, Ynet has learned.
The psychiatrist has been arrested on suspicion that he gave his clients fraudulent medical opinions citing mental illness, which afforded them monthly stipends from the state. On Monday the Rishon Lezion Magistrates' Court remanded his arrest by four days.
Last week police arrested an ultra-Orthodox man believed to have referred clients to the psychiatrist. He is suspected of filing dozens of fraudulent claims regarding handicaps and mental illness on behalf of these clients, many of whom are haredim.
Police trailed a number of yeshiva students after learning that they were receiving the monthly stipend allotted to the mentally ill. Detectives say the psychiatrist knew the dishonest medical opinions were being used to reap benefits from the state.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3970976,00.html
Barak's wife: I broke law
Defense minister's wife admits to illegally hiring foreign worker, expresses willingness to pay fine.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak's wife, Nili Priel, admitted that she illegally hired a foreign worker and expressed her willingness to pay a fine, in a bid to put an end to the affair.
In a letter sent to Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein, Priel noted that in her first interrogation in connection with the affair, months ago, she admitted to employing a foreign worker without a permit.
"Back then, I already expressed my regret, and I repeat this today and am willing to pay the fine imposed by the State in such cases," she wrote. Barak's wife added that she expects the affair to come to an end once she pays the fine, noting that she expects an answer for her letter soon.
The case against Priel was closed earlier after officials said the foreign worker in question, identified as Virginia, could not be located. However, following a conversation Sunday between Israel Radio report Carmela Menashe and the worker, senior legal officials estimated that the case will be reopened.
In her latest letter, as was the case in the past, Priel refused to say why she did not hand over the foreign worker's phone number to authorities.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3971132,00.html
US murder suspect 'was Mossad agent'
Acquaintance says man who fled to Israel after allegedly killing parents told him he worked for Mossad, CIA.
Eric Bellucci, a New York man who fled to Israel after allegedly killing his parents last week has claimed he worked for the Mossad in the past, the New York Post reported Monday.
Bellucci arrived in the US Sunday after Israel deported him directly from Ben Gurion International Airport, where he landed Wednesday after fleeing the scene of his parents' murder. A few hours later he was charged with double homicide.
His high school acquaintance has revealed that Bellucci, who is not Jewish, told him of his espionage activities, saying the murder suspect told everyone he was modeling in Israel, but "he told me he was working for the Israeli Mossad".
Bellucci added that he had worked for the CIA and that he had planned "to set up a station in India so I can look at Pakistan", the acquaintance said.
The murder suspect arrived on an El Al flight to Tel Aviv, where he may have intended to stay at the home of one of his friends.
But he was recognized by a check-in flight attendant, Liran Cohen, upon attempting to purchase a flight ticket out of Israel. She called the police, who arrested Bellucci.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3970940,00.html
19 oct 2010
Israeli wanted for US murder arrested at airport
Trained doctor Yevgeny Prechikov accused of murdering two women by injecting them with unidentifiable substances, trying to collect insurance money post mortem.
Yevgeny Prechikov, an Israeli citizen also known as Eyal Shachar, who has been wanted for murder in the United States for the past six years, was arrested Tuesday at Ben-Gurion Airport. New York authorities filed an indictment against Prechikov last year for two murders committed in 2002 and 2004 as well as fraud offences.
Prechikov, a trained doctor, is accused of murdering two women by injecting their bodies with unidentifiable substances. In one of the cases, it is alleged that Prechikov collected more than $1 million from insurance companies post mortem. He fled the US in January 2005.
US authorities suspect that together with an American woman born in Russia, Prechikov worked to issue life insurance policies on her name, each worth $1 million. Prechikov was the main beneficiary.
The two provided insurance companies with false data.
In November 2002, some two years after the policies were issued, he allegedly killed the woman, 47, by injecting her with substances which could not be identified in the autopsy.
Meanwhile, the defendant used the same MO on another Russian immigrant, aged 51. It is alleged he murdered her in the same manner in August 2004, but failed to collect to insurance money.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3971747,00.html 20 oct 2010, 23:19 , Respect -
Maria 20 oct 2010
ISRAEL-WOMEN_ON_SALE
(3:43) 201010192257WD-ISRAEL-WOMEN_ON_SALE.mpg
Israeli organisation puts a price tag on women in a shop window, protesting human trafficking for the sex industry.
Rabbi accused of sexual abuse: Man's strength is in his silence
Police recommended Elon, one of the most prominent rabbis in the religious Zionist movement, be indicted on charges of sexual crimes following several complaints.
Rabbi Mordechai (Moti) Elon responded Wednesday to testimonies of sexual abuse claims against him that had been made public by Takana, a forum that fights sexual abuse in the Orthdox community, saying "man's greatest strength is to remain silent."
"What there is in the world is not the noise around," Elon said during a sermon in a Bat Yam synagogue.
Elon, who was suspended from his public position following the police's recommendation to charge him with the allegations against him, said "Rachel taught me the secret of silence. There are kinds of silence that are above talk."
Following a lengthy investigation, the police announced in August they had collected sufficient evidence to recommend that Elon, one of the most prominent rabbis in the religious Zionist movement, be indicted on charges of sexual crimes.
Police suspect Elon of forcibly committing indecent acts on two minors.
The investigation included testimony from various individuals who had come into contact with the complainant during the time the alleged crimes were committed and strengthened the suspicions against Elon.
Earlier on Wednesday, hundreds of Elon's students signed an online petition criticizing "the malicious intention to publish defamations."
"For the last year we have gotten used to attempts to humiliate Rabbi Elon, and the Rabbi, in his humility has remained silent," the students wrote in the petition. "But now things have reached a point at which we cannot remain silent. To us, who have known Elon for many years, you cannot tell stories. We testify that over the many years we have been privileged to study and teach with Rabbi Elon, we have never, in any matter, not sight, nor rumor or even a hint of any kind, encountered exploitive or inappropriate behavior on Elon's part."
http://bit.ly/aN9XPY
21 oct 2010
Two soldiers arrested for stealing weapons from IDF
Weapons were taken from army base in central Israel and allegedly sold to criminals; dozens of rifles, grenades, and machine guns stolen.
Two soldiers and four civilians were arrested for allegedly stealing IDF weapons and selling them to criminals, reported Army Radio on Thursday.
Police say five of suspects admitted to the crimes, and incriminated others.
The weapons were reportedly stolen from an army base in central Israel.
The stolen weapons include dozens of M16 rifles, grenade launchers, and a machine gun, as well as ammunition. The stolen goods are valued at hundreds of thousands of shekels.
Israeli police have carried out in recent months an intensive investigation into the theft of IDF weapons. The investigation opened following intelligence information provided by the Central Special Investigations Unit.
The suspects were arrested during the investigation by military police, in cooperation with Israel Police.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=192286 31 oct 2010, 18:42 , Respect -
Maria 28 oct 2010
WOMEN FOR SALE ! SHOP OPENS IN ISRAEL
(2:55) WOMEN FOR SALE ! SHOP OPENS IN ISRAEL
More Than 10,000 Women Trafficked in Israel in Last Decade
PNN Israeli women's rights lawyer Ori Kadar said in the past ten years more than 10,000 women have been brought to Israel as part of new slave trade.
Image Kadar began campaigning to call attention to the phenomenon after he was shocked to see a stall inside a crowded market in Tel Aviv filled not with expensive clothes or movies, but with women for sale. He couldn't believe the sight of young women standing like any other product, each carrying information about their age, height, weight, and country of origin.
Kadar said he was investigating the trade and pressuring the Israeli Ministry of Justice to implement criminal sanctions against the men who obtain the services in question.
This legislation is an important step in the fight against women trafficking, he said. Legislation against customers will reduce the demand for prostitution and thus reduce profits for the criminal organization. This will limit the trafficking.
He noted that the legislation was being drafted along the lines of the Swedish model, which accomplished the same ends of reducing demand. Kadar said that trafficked women faced assault, rape, forced starvation, and between 15 and 30 sex acts a day, every day of the year.
According to a human-trafficking report issued by the U.S. State Department, Israel is still a major smuggling destination in the sex and forced labor trades. Some criminal organizations still smuggle women from countries of the former Soviet Union and China to Israel through its Egyptian border.
A report prepared by the Parliamentary Investigative Committee chief and Knesset Minister Zahafa Ja'alun said that the size of the trafficking in Israel exceeded nearly a billion shekels (about $235 million) in one year. In past years, between 3000 and 5000 women have been smuggled into Israel for sex work, each sold for between $1000 and $10,000.
The report found there were more than 10,000 female sex workers working in about 400 brothels in all corners of Israel. Most were sold for between $8,000 and $10,000, worked seven days a week and 14 to 18 hours a day, and were paid 120 shekels ($35) for an hour with each customer of which $7 went to the trader.
The trade flourished in Israel for many years, especially after the break-up of the Soviet Union and the emigration of many former Soviet subjects to Israel. Leaving hardship, many Russian women believed they could find solutions in Israeli society. The trade turned global with different partners and divided profits, and Israel became a second-class state to the U.S. State Department. The UN called it a major point in the [sex] trade.
The global slave trade makes about $9 billion a year, with wealthy nations seeing a rise in imported women. But the phenomenon is not limited to women. Male migrant workers, often from China, Romania, Turkey, Thailand, the Philippines, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and India, come legally to Israel for work in construction, agriculture, or health services. But they are often forced into work after their passports are stolen they are kept in one place, denied payment, threatened, and beaten. These workers can be sold as slaves for between $1000 and $10,000.
In related news, the Israeli women's group Midot held a press conference in which it was revealed that more than 200,000 Israeli women had been sexually assaulted, with only a quarter of them reported the assaults to the police. The group explained that 9,000 of these assaults happened in the past year, with only a fifth of the survivors going to the police.
http://bit.ly/95s1rZ