A man suspected of brutally murdering his 10-year-old son in an olive grove was
ordered to remain in custody by the Ramle Magistrate’s Court on Thursday as the
police’s murder investigation continues.
Homicide detectives from the
police central district this week arrested Muhammad Sarsur, of Kafr Kasim, after
he became the prime suspect in the murder of his son Anas, whose body was found
near the family home with severe injury marks.
“We have attributed the
suspicion of murder to him [the father],” the police representative told the
magistrate’s court during the remand hearing.
The representative refused
to discuss the alleged motive for the slaying or detail the evidence, but said
police amassed enough to support the suspicions against the father.
The
representative said the suspect’s home had been intensively searched, as well as
his cellphone. Police were waiting for forensic results from an autopsy carried
out on the boy’s body, he added.
During police questioning in recent
days, the father was asked why he did not cry over his son’s violent death,
according to Sarsur’s attorney Anwar Fareej, who slammed the question as
illegitimate.
It was “unfeasible that someone who was a good father, who
cared and worried for his child, would do something like this,” Fareej
said.
He also said police removed knives from the homes of neighbors to
analyze them.
The attorney criticized police for the slow pace of the
investigation.
Ramle Magistrate’s Court Judge David Shoham rejected
Fareej’s request for the suspect to be released from custody, but also did not
fully comply with the police’s request to keep Sarsur in custody for 10 days,
extending his remand by a week instead.
Earlier this week, Sarsur’s
brother, Mahmoud, told The Jerusalem Post: “The family has suffered two murders;
first Anas was murdered and now a second time when police arrested
Muhammad.”
The boy’s body was found over the weekend after he was
reported missing by his father.