Over four months after the head of the Ramle Wakf – the authority in charge of
local Muslim sites – was found murdered in the city’s Great Mosque, a suspect in
the killing was arraigned in the Ramle Magistrate’s Court on
Monday.
Khaled Darwish will remain in custody for at least six days while
police work on building a case for an indictment against him in the killing of
Muhammad Taji, one of the most well-known community leaders in
Ramle.
Darwish’s lawyer, Shukri Tabik, told the court that his client,
who was arrested on Sunday, had no personal or business relationship with Taji,
and that he only knew him “because everyone in Ramle knows him.”
“He has
no personal connection to him and no idea whatsoever who killed him or why,”
Tabik said outside the courthouse on Monday, adding that a previous suspect had
also been arrested following the murder and later released.
Police would
not present before the court the evidence they have against the 43- year-old,
though the judge did say that there is enough reasonable evidence to order him
to remain in custody.
Taji spent nearly four decades managing the local
wakf. He also managed a youth soccer team and served as an adviser for the city
of Ramle on Arab issues.
He was found murdered in his office on October
5, and suspicions began to mount that the killing may have been linked to
property issues, as Taji was in charge of rent and property disputes involving
the wakf properties, which include large swaths of the old city and the market
in Ramle.
His death was met by an outpouring of grief from residents and
community leaders, as well as MK Ahmed Tibi, one of Taji’s cousins.