The arrest of the jeweler Israel Or, who is suspected of sexual offenses and assaulting his partners, including the former beauty queen, Tehila Levy, was extended today (Sunday) by another eight days.
So far, 10 complaints have accumulated against Or, who denies the suspicions against him.
"There is a danger that requires allowing the suspect to be detained," the judge wrote in her decision.
Last week, about six months after the police started receiving complaints against Or, he returned to Israel and was arrested at the airport and taken for questioning.
Today at noon he was brought again for an extension of detention where the police representative claimed that this is a large-scale investigation file that raises particularly complex legal issues.
The vast majority of complaints deal with cases of rape using a mind-altering substance or against the free consent of the complainant.
"He was with us every day in the investigation, we managed to conduct three confrontations, one confrontation took three hours in order to understand the case," said the police representative at the hearing.
Or's defense attorneys, attorneys Etti Kharif, Yitzhak Getniu, and Haim Ifergan, claimed at the hearing that each and every one of these girls asked for the suspect's proximity, money, home, and literal body warmth.
"It's not a reason for arrest. It's not pleasant, immoral, dishonorable, I wouldn't want him to marry my daughter, but it's not a reason for arrest. I wouldn't be wrong if I said that in the suspect's place, a rich older woman who loves young, strong men would be sitting in the same situation, celebrating the parties with them Somehow she wouldn't have been arrested for such complaints."
Attorney Kharif added: "These are recycled complaints, these are old complaints, these are occupied complaints, these are engineered complaints that only arose at a late stage under the spotlight of the media, this should already turn on a red light, even if the things need to be investigated and they should, this should not deprive him of his freedom the most basic".
Judge Christina Hilo Asad, who extended his detention by eight days, stated in her decision that there is a reasonable suspicion of the commission of the offenses attributed to the suspect when it comes to a considerable number of complainants, with various levels of familiarity with the suspect.
"The defense attorney has submitted documents that are in her favor in order to erode the image of reasonable suspicion and point to motives for filing the complaints. These documents will be handed over to the investigating unit, which is asked
to examine all the data of the case, including the suspect's version, including additional evidence regarding the motives of the complainants.
"At this stage, I did not find that there is anything in the material presented before me to drop the ground under the image of the general reasonable suspicion that emerged in this case, paying attention to the type and nature of the complaints."
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