Palestinian charged with Ashkelon beach rape

Two other Palestinians indicted for allegedly failing to prevent the crime.

By JOANNA PARASZCZUK
beach 311 (photo credit: Arthur Wolak)
beach 311
(photo credit: Arthur Wolak)
A Palestinian man residing illegally in Israel was indicted on Sunday for the rape of a woman on the Ashkelon beach.
According to the indictment, served in the Beersheba District Court, 23- year-old Mohammed Tarodi from the West Bank is alleged to have raped the 22- year-old woman just over a week ago as she lay sunbathing next to her boyfriend.
Both the woman – who cannot be named as is standard practice for sexual assault and rape victims – and her boyfriend were asleep when Tarodi allegedly first saw them at around 2 p.m. that afternoon.
The indictment alleges that Tarodi approached the woman, who was lying on her stomach and wearing a swimsuit, and stroked her hair, back and buttocks as she slept.
Tarodi then allegedly lowered his trousers and raped the woman, knowing that she was sleeping and could not give her consent.
During the attack, the woman awoke in shock and saw Tarodi as he hitched up his trousers and ran away, the indictment alleges.
The woman immediately woke her boyfriend, who saw she was emotionally distressed and in tears, again according to the indictment.
The state attorney’s office also served a request that Tarodi be remanded in custody for the duration of the legal proceedings against him, in which they charge that two witnesses saw the woman’s distress after the alleged rape and called the police.
The remand request charges that Tarodi is a danger to the public, because he allegedly committed the rape in public as the victim’s boyfriend slept beside her, and because as an illegal resident he is a flight risk.
Tarodi will be formally arraigned in the Beersheba District Court on January 8.
The state attorney’s office also filed separate indictments against two other illegal Palestinian residents who allegedly witnessed the rape, charging them with failing to prevent a crime and with illegal residency.
Mohammed Aldoda and Mohammed Zama’ara allegedly witnessed the attack on the victim, the indictments against them charge.
In a remand hearing for both Zama’ara and Aldoda in the Beersheba Magistrate’s Court on Sunday, Zama’ara’s defense attorney, Akram Hasuna, argued that there was no evidence his client had failed to prevent a crime and that others had been present on the beach during the alleged events, including a fisherman, but they had not been indicted.
The police had previously told reporters that a fisherman saw the victim’s boyfriend chasing the man who assaulted her, and called the police.
Hasuna said it was “shameful” that Zama’ara and Aldoda, both of whom he said cooperated with the police, were charged with failing to prevent a crime.
Avital Zaguri, for the state, charged that Zama’ara and Aldoda witnessed the alleged rape and could have prevented it even if they did not know beforehand it was going to happen. The court will convene again on Tuesday regarding the state’s request to remand Zama’ara and Aldoda for the duration of the proceedings.