Eritrean, 2 others arrested for funding terror

Three men were arrested in recent days, in two police investigations, on suspicion of financing terrorist organizations.

Police did not say whether the two investigations were linked.

In the first case, an Eritrean migrant, named as Kabri Gabriosos, of Tel Aviv, was arrested by the Serious and International Crimes Unit on suspicion of raising money from Sudanese and Eritrean migrants, and passing it on to a Sinai-based terrorist organization.

Gabriosos denied all suspicions against him during police questioning via an interpreter.

He appeared before the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, where a police representative handed the court a secret document detailing the suspicions.

Public defense attorney Dagani Mashali, who is representing Gabriosos, said police asked his client if he knew other men suspected of being part of the terror financing ring.

Mashali asked the police representative if the terrorist organization in question had been declared as such by Israel, and was answered in the affirmative.

“He was released on bail after his initial arrest [last week], but failed to show up for questioning as agreed. We set up ambushes to locate him, and finally got him.

When we found him, he resisted arrest,” the police representative told the court.

Gabriosos is also suspected of conspiracy to commit a crime, money-laundering, and using property on behalf of terrorism.

“This is a complex and sensitive investigation at its peak,” Judge Sara Zamir said, adding that “there is a reasonable” link between Gabriosos and the suspicions against him. His custody was extended by nine days.

On Wednesday, the Serious and International Crimes Unit brought two other men, an Arab Israeli resident of Ramle, and a Palestinian resident of the West Bank, before the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court on suspicions of terror financing.

Both had been arrested by police at an IDF checkpoint near Hebron earlier on Wednesday. The Ramle man told police he had been on his way to see a plot of land in the West Bank he intended to buy, and voluntarily showed police the cash in his possession. He denied all suspicions against him.

During the court session, the suspect’s attorney, Yaakov Gabai, asked the police representative to court, “With whom did he make contact?” “That’s under investigation,” the representative said.

The suspect said that he had been working for his father for three years, adding that he has a girlfriend and a young child, and no history of criminal offenses.

The Palestinian suspect, who has been in Israeli custody in the past, denied ever knowing or meeting the Ramle resident. His attorney, Sanayetz Tilawi, said his client had been in touch with a man named Abu Samah from the Gaza-based Al-Nor charity. “This is a voluntary charity that helps [Palestinian] prisoners in Israeli jails,” the attorney said.

“He [my client] did not know and could know he was in touch with a foreign agent,” Tilawi added, describing his client as a woodshop worker who was innocent of all the allegations against him.

“There is a reasonable suspicion that they are linked to the suspicions,” Judge Ita Nahaman ruled, extending their custody by nine days.