“The police are looking for progress in the investigation, at any price”

Monday, October 10, 2011, 14:43 At the Petah Tikva Magistrates Court, the remand of an additional suspect in the northern Israel mosque arson incident was extended. Investigators from the National Unit of Serious and International Crime Investigations requested that his remand be extended by seven days, however Judge Nitza Maimon Shashua extended the remand by only two days.
Yesterday, the suspect was detained when he arrived at the police station of his own volition, after investigators from the National Unit of Serious and International Crime Investigations requested that he give testimony on the incident. Afterwards, the suspect was interrogated concerning his involvement with the arson, however he gave an alibi that proves that he was at his home at the time of the arson, and he denied all connection to the incident. There is a gag order on details of the suspect and the investigation.
Honenu Attorney Adi Keidar, who represented the suspect, reported in response to the court’s decision that “The police themselves know that the suspect is not connected in any way to the incident. The suspect gave an alibi that he was not on the scene, and he denies the charges against him.”
Keidar added that “The fact that the suspect arrived at the investigation on his own initiative, and was detained, and the fact that the Israeli Police didn’t find it appropriate to question his wife concerning his alibi, strengthens our feeling that there is no reason for his remand, and that it was intended merely to give an impression of progress in the investigation.”
Sources close to the detainee reported that “The police want to show progress at any price, even at the price of detaining a man who according to all opinions is innocent.”