Police announced Tuesday the arrest of a second suspect in a series of
firebombings that targeted African migrants in south Tel Aviv last Thursday
night.
Though there is a gag order on the case, banning the publication
of the suspect’s name and her photo, she is the sister of the primary suspect,
Haim Mula, a 20-yearold resident of Tel Aviv’s Shapira neighborhood.
The
suspect was brought before the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, where her
remand was extended until Wednesday.
Police said the suspicions against
her were not that she threw the Molotov cocktails, but that she tried to hamper
the police investigation and helped in the conspiracy behind the
crime.
Mula allegedly threw Molotov cocktails at a day-care center and
three homes of African asylum-seekers in the Shapira neighborhood in south Tel
Aviv this past Friday.
His lawyer Jacob Kahan said no one had told him
what evidence existed against his client, who has only a few minor arrests on
his record.
Also, photos of Mula – taken at a Friday protest in the
Shapira neighborhood against the firebombing – emerged on Sunday. The series of
photos showed him clashing with protesters, ripping their placards and verbally
assaulting demonstrators.
They also showed police whisking him
away.
Mula’s arrest was the first after the string of attacks late last
Thursday night, which targeted three Shapira homes. The neighborhood has become
a flashpoint for tensions between Israelis and the thousands of asylum seekers
and migrant workers who have moved into the area, many of whom are from Africa
and southeast Asia.
One of the three buildings also housed a day-care
center run by Blessing Akachukneu, a native of Nigeria. No one was hurt at the
day-care center, though there were four young children sleeping inside when the
incident took place.