TA court orders two migrants accused of rape released

Judge agrees not to free men until Wednesday after police lodge appeal.

By BEN HARTMAN
Police car in Tel Aviv at night 311 (photo credit: Yoni Cohen)
Police car in Tel Aviv at night 311
(photo credit: Yoni Cohen)
The Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court on Monday ordered the release of two Eritrean migrants arrested last week on suspicion of rape, saying the evidence was insufficient to keep the men in custody any longer.
Police immediately appealed the decision and the court agreed to delay the men’s release until Wednesday.
Attorney Shiran Bergman, who is representing one of the suspects on behalf of the public defender’s office, said the court ruled that the investigation had not been sufficiently thorough.
Police would not comment on the criticism.
The migrants were arrested last Wednesday after allegedly luring an Israeli woman into an abandoned building on Tel Aviv’s Hamasger Street earlier in the day.
One of the men raped her while the other kept watch, according to police.
Police said the 39- year-old woman had told them she was walking down the street when one of the men asked her to help with his baby; when they reached the abandoned building the two men dragged her inside.
Police took the woman back to the scene of the alleged crime, where they said she identified one