Tel Aviv Magistrate Court Judge Benjamin Hirschel on Thursday released Mohammed Zeid, suspected of setting fire to the Ben-Gurion statue on Tel Aviv's beach, and harshly criticized the Tel Aviv police for not carrying out a significant part of the investigative activities it should have carried out.
The statue of Ben Gurion burnt on the beach of Tel Aviv
"I must consider the length of the investigation when it appears to be a case that is not complex," wrote the judge who granted the police's request and delayed the release decision by a day. During Rosh Hashanah, on Saturday morning, the statue of David Ben-Gurion was set on fire on Bograshov Beach in Tel Aviv. A few hours later, after receiving security camera footage, Zeid was arrested after he was seen running away from the promenade. When Zaid was arrested, his clothes apparently had soot on them and the clothes were seized and taken for laboratory testing.
Zeid's defense attorney, Zohar Moshe, who represents him from the Public Defender's Office, noted that the investigating unit was unable to carry out actions that caused the suspicion to thicken, and all the police have is that his client was in the vicinity of the place. "Already in the first extension of detention, on Saturday night the same action of viewing reports was requested. Already yesterday before the meeting. My colleague in his fairness replied that the operation had not been carried out. Under these circumstances, since the investigation is not progressing and reasonable suspicion only weakened both at the first meeting and yesterday, the investigating unit has no indication to show that the suspect here did the act," said Attorney Moshe.
No investigative actions were carried out. Tel Aviv District Police,
Judge Hirschel, who accepted the lawyer's statement, criticized the police and noted that despite the media coverage of the case, he must examine the case on its merits: "I find it difficult to see from the investigation material presented to me how reasonable suspicion has thickened since the day the suspect was arrested. It seems that the completion of the investigation requested by the State Attorney's Office indicates the evidentiary difficulty regarding identification, with which the State Attorney's Office is struggling."
Removing the statue of Ben Gurion after it was set on fire, photo: Yehoshua Yosef
"The court, in its decision yesterday, extended the suspect's detention until today for the purpose of carrying out an investigative action that appears in the State Prosecutor's Office investigation supplements. A representative of the investigating unit confirms that nothing was done to advance this investigative action," the judge wrote, adding: "I also find it difficult to see in the investigation file what actions were taken in an attempt to advance this investigative action. The grounds for arrest are prima facie dangerous, learned from the person who carried out an arson operation on a beach. However, I must consider the length of the investigation when it appears to be a case that is not complex."
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