By ABE SELIG
Police on Tuesday lifted the gag order on a case involving three young Jewish men - none of them Jerusalem residents - who were arrested three weeks ago on suspicion of fatally stabbing an Arab resident of the capital in December 2008.
The suspects, two of whom are minors, were brought before the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court on Tuesday afternoon for a remand hearing.
According to police, Judge Gad Aronberg initially allowed the two minors to be released to house arrest at their parents' homes, but investigators requested the decision be delayed for 24 hours and the judge agreed.
According to police, the suspects approached Shuafat resident Hamed Hamed on December 3, 2008, on a street corner in Jerusalem's Me'a She'arim neighborhood and asked him for the time - in an effort to identify him as an Arab.
When he answered them, police said, the suspects sprayed Hamed with pepper spray, beat him and then stabbed him.
Hamed was rushed to the hospital in critical condition, but he died of his wounds. At the time, police announced that the motive for the stabbing was nationalistic and appointed a special unit to investigate the crime.
A day after the stabbing, two teens were arrested and released after being questioned by investigators. Police on Tuesday would not verify if the suspects now in custody had been those interrogated at the time.
Police have said, however, that the three suspects now in custody, a 22-year-old and two 17-year-olds, have confessed to the killing and that an indictment would be filed against them in the coming days.
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