The cage in which the one-and-a-half-year-old toddler was locked up (Photo: Israel Police spokeswoman)
A 35-year-old woman was arrested last night (Monday), after her one-and-a-half-year-old baby was found locked in a cage in an apartment in Haifa, with a large quantity of crystal meth drugs on the premises.
Now the mother states that she denies the suspicions attributed to her.
The mother's defense attorney said that this is an "unusual exaggeration of the incident, it is about two minutes of indiscretion".
The mother was arrested last night on suspicion of false imprisonment, abuse and neglect of a helpless person.
Also, two other suspects, aged 22 and 27, were arrested on suspicion of drug offenses, after the amount of drugs found in the apartment was determined to be too large for self-consumption.
At the hearing held today in court, Judge Ahsan Halabi stated that the mother's detention should be extended by three days, until Wednesday.
Also, today the mother's six children were transferred to the custody of welfare officials.
The children's father was arrested last Saturday on suspicion of involvement in a shooting incident.
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"A parrot's cage that the children used to play in", the cage in which the child was found (Photo: Israel Police Spokesperson)
At first, the mother and her defense attorney, attorney Daniel Drovitsky, claimed that she was not at her home at all during the case. However, later during the investigation, the mother claimed that she did lock the child in a cage, but according to her it was only for two occasions. A one-off incident, of two minutes, in which there may have been a lack of judgment on the part of the mother," said the mother's defense attorney. The defense attorney also added that welfare determined that the child between the ages of one and a half will be sent to daycare.
The mother's aunt said that she does not believe the police's suspicions, and that according to her, one of the children Grown himself in a cage by mistake. "Everything they say about her is not true.
She gives up a lot of things just for her children.
Her situation is difficult, her husband is violent towards her and welfare knows it, she has been telling this for years and welfare does nothing," said the aunt, "she has six children, the oldest between 9 and the youngest between two months.
Her life is to bring them food"
The brother of the suspected mother said that he and the family will help and give the mother everything she needs, but clarified and said that "we are not connected to this whole matter".
"This is a difficult and shocking incident," said police representative Eddie Kantrowitz, "She gave a version that has already been refuted. At this point, we intend to check whether the child's imprisonment was a permanent matter."
"A difficult and shocking event."
The police (Photo: Shlomi Gabai)
"This is a case we have never encountered before," admitted Chief Inspector Yossi Atias, the investigation and intelligence officer at the Haifa station, "even experienced detectives were surprised by the situation and had difficulty containing it. We entered a residence that was used as a drug den, and during the operation the police discovered in one of the rooms a closed and locked iron cage inside which was a child without Supervision and unable to get out," he described, "He was sitting on several pillows with a bottle of food, no games, definitely not a situation worthy of living. There were other children in the apartment, but not a single adult. The claims we heard will be investigated but do not match what we found at the scene
. in an iron cage that the child could not enter or leave on his own," he noted. He said that in her investigation the mother claimed that in the absence of the father and given that she had other children she had no choice but to put the child in the iron cage. The Haifa police station believes that the mother is involved in the drug business of the extended family, and that apparently at the time of the raid he was working selling drugs.
The residents of the area and the mother's neighbors in Benin also came to her defense.
"They just made a story out of it, she is a great mother. The children used to play in the cage," one of the neighbors in Benin told Wala.
Another neighbor told about the mother that "she's a good girl, she's married to a bad husband, but she doesn't use drugs. The cage belongs to the parrot, which is no longer used. The children used to water in it, maybe a child closed a child."
The Hadar Carmel neighborhood in Haifa, where the mother lived with her children, is known as an area that has seen many criminal incidents, and that many of its residents, Jews and Arabs, are hardworking.
More than once, drug stations were uncovered in the area.
This, despite the announcement of the mayor of Haifa about eradicating crime "and drying up the swamps" as she defined it.
The head of the welfare department in the Haifa municipality, Mayra Kiperman, commented on the incident and said that: "Yesterday night, a contact was received directly from the police to a social worker in the welfare department. Immediately after receiving the report, a team of three senior social workers went to the family's home to carry out a quick intervention, with the focus being on providing Immediate protection and treatment for the toddler himself and his siblings, so that it appears that they are receiving the appropriate treatment package for their condition at the same time. Of course, this is a one-off emergency intervention, from which a broader assessment of the situation will be made and the family will receive all the care they deserve in the future."
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