Suspect in Nabi Elias vehicular arson case released to house arrest

Wednesday, April 4, 11:08 Honenu reports that Y., a minor suspected of involvement with the Nabi Elias vehicular arson approximately two months ago, has been released to house arrest.
In a deliberation at the Petah Tikva District Court, Judge Michal Barnet ordered that Y. be released on 10,000 NIS bail to house arrest under complete surveillance. The prosecution agreed.
To reiterate, approximately two months ago in a car-jacking incident a car driven by a Jewish woman was stolen near the Arab village of Nabi Elias in the northern Shomron. This was just one incident in a widespread wave of car-jackings by Arabs on the roads of the Shomron. The same night a vehicle was torched in Nabi Elias, supposedly in response to the car-jacking. Residents of the village reported to the police a suspicious vehicle fleeing the scene.
The police identified the vehicle and pursued it. In the end the vehicle was found abandoned on the side of the road. The same night the vehicle’s owner, a Yitzhar resident, was arrested on suspicion of involvement with the incident. He was released several days later by the police.
Three weeks ago three suspects in the arson were arrested in a joint pre-dawn raid conducted by Yassam (Special Police), border police, police detectives and agents from the Jewish Department of the GSS on the communities of Bat Ayin, Yad Binyamin and Yitzhar. Two of the suspects in the incident were released, however against the third, Y., a charge sheet was filed. Y. had already been ordered released to house arrest by a Jerusalem Magistrate Court judge. The judge ruled that there was no difference between the evidence against the minor who had been released earlier and the evidence against Y., however the police appealed the decision, which the court accepted, and the youth has remained in remand until now. Today, with the consent of the police, Y. was released to house arrest in his parents’ house.
Honenu attorney Aharon Roza represented Y.