Court lifts ban on name of alleged victim in motive for Bar Noar shooting

Benny Felician, brother of suspected murderer Hagai Felician, revealed to be sexual assault victim who spurred shooting.

By BEN HARTMAN
Suspect in Bar Noar shooting 370 (photo credit: Ben Hartman)
Suspect in Bar Noar shooting 370
(photo credit: Ben Hartman)
The younger brother of Bar Noar gay teen center murder suspect Hagai Felician was the male relative whose sexual assault was the motive for the August 2009 double murder, the Tel Aviv District Court cleared for publication on Tuesday evening.
Younger brother Benny Felician, then a teenager, was indicted earlier this year on charges of trying to obtain an illegal firearm from the man who became the state’s witness in the case – himself a relative of one of the three men arrested, Tarlan Hankishayev.
Benny was arrested along with Hagai and Hankishayev in June, a few months after an inmate came forward and told police that he knew who had carried out the murders.
Eventually the murder charges against Benny Felician and Hankishayev were dropped, and Hagai Felician was the only one indicted for the killings.
The motive, according to police, was Hagai’s desire to avenge Benny’s alleged sexual assault at the hands of Shaul Gonen, then the manager of the gay teen center.
From the beginning, Benny denied he had ever been sexually assaulted and repeatedly asked the court to clear his name for publication.
Hagai’s older brother, was arrested in July on suspicion of raping a female attorney who had come to him to try and work on the Bar Noar case. Those charges have since been dropped.