The Jerusalem District Court ruled on Wednesday to delete an appeal by two
suspects arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of gang raping an 18- year-old high
school student after a graduation party in a private home close to
Jerusalem.
Police arrested four men in total, and on Tuesday the
Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court ruled to extend their remand until Thursday, while
a police investigation continues. The two men in court today, one a security
guard and the other a pool lifeguard, were both paid workers at the party, and
were appealing against a magistrate’s court ruling to extend their
remand.
All four deny the suspicions against them.
A court-imposed
gag order preventing publication of the suspects’ names and photographs and all
details of the ongoing police investigation remains in place, as is standard for
cases involving sexual assault suspicions.
In Wednesday’s appeal hearing,
the public defender representing one of the two suspects, attorney Nadav
Gedaliahu, initially asked the court to release his client to full house arrest
in his parents’ home.
Gedaliahu said that he estimated no charges would
eventually be filed against his client.
Citing the Jerusalem Magistrate’s
Court decision on Tuesday to remand the four men in to custody, Gedaliahu said
that the two suspects appealing had undertaken paid employment at the party at
which “hundreds of teenagers and adults were present.”
“There is no
evidence linking them to the rape,” he said.
Attorney Zecharia
Schenkolewski, representing the second suspect, also said there was no evidence
to establish reasonable grounds for suspicion against his client, and added that
the fact his client was present at the villa did not constitute reasonable
suspicion.
A police representative, however, presented the court with a
summary of the police investigation and what he said was evidence attributed to
each of the suspects.
At the end of the hearing, the suspects’ lawyers
said they agreed to delete the appeal.
Judge Miriam Mizrahi also ruled
that a gag order on the case would remain in place.