The 21-year-old Palestinian from the Nablus region suspected of subjecting a
couple to a vicious assault and rape in parking lot below Tel Aviv city hall on
May 11 has been named as Ahmed Bani Jaber.
Media were permitted to name
the suspect on Wednesday after the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court lifted a media
ban, which was in place to allow police to investigate the suspicions
freely.
During a court hearing, attended by the suspect and his three
attorneys, the police representative to court, Yoni Hirschoren, said that a
prosecutor's statement would be submitted to the court, a procedure that is a
prelude to imminent formal charges.
Jabri denies raping the couple,
saying he merely robbed them of their phones.
Last week, police said DNA
evidence linked the suspect to the incident.
Police arrested the West
Bank resident in Tel Aviv earlier this month on suspicion of following the
couple to the Gan Ha’ir parking lot, brandishing a knife and forcing them into
the garage’s bathroom, where he allegedly forced them to carry out sexual acts
on one another and raped the 17- year-old girl.