Court releases Alperon brothers on bail

Dror and Omer Alperon, sons of Israeli mobster Yaakob Alperon, were arrested for assaulting police detectives.

By BEN HARTMAN
Dror and Omer Alperon in court 370 (photo credit: Ben Hartman)
Dror and Omer Alperon in court 370
(photo credit: Ben Hartman)
The Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court on Friday afternoon released Dror and Omer Alperon as well as a third suspect, Daniel Gedidian, on bail on Friday, the day after they were arrested on suspicion of assaulting detectives who came to their Herzliya home to execute a search warrant.
The brothers – sons of the Israeli mobster Yaakov Alperon, who was murdered four-and-ahalf years ago in a car bombing in north Tel Aviv – both claim they were the subject of violence on the part of police, who they said did not identify themselves when they burst into their home on Friday.
Gedidian was also arraigned and released on bond. Police had initially referred to him as a bodyguard of the brothers, though it is unclear if he was just a friend or associate who was at the house that morning.
Attorney Ilan Azoulay said that police “came to the door without identifying themselves and started banging down the door with a 5-kilogram hammer.
Dror and Omer were asleep and had no idea what was going on.”
Azoulay said police told the brothers they had a search warrant for drugs and firearms, and that when they noticed there were surveillance cameras inside filming the incident, they confiscated the cameras.
When asked if Dror had returned to crime following his release from prison in February, following a three-year sentence for extortion, he said, “Dror is trying to rehabilitate himself and get his life back on track.
Whenever someone gets released from prison, police like to come and cause them all types of problems and get them to slip up.”
Inside the courtroom, a detective from the Tel Aviv branch of the YAMAR investigative unit said that when police arrived at the Alperon home they knocked on the door and heard what they suspected to be an effort by the brothers to destroy evidence.
When no one answered the door, the six detectives forced their way in, at which point they were pushed and verbally threatened by the brothers and Gedidian.
No police were physically harmed in the incident.
Not long after the hearing began the judge ordered the brothers released on bond furthering a continuation of the investigation, as a group of around a dozen young, mostly male supporters in the courtroom cheered.
In January, the brothers’ uncle, Nissim Alperon, survived the ninth attempt on his life, fleeing from his car moments before it exploded at a junction in central Tel Aviv.