Court rules to ease Hanan Goldblatt's house arrest

Actor allowed out for daily walks within the borders of the community.

By DAN IZENBERG, JPOST STAFF
The Tel Aviv District Court ruled Thursday to ease the conditions of actor Hanan Goldblatt's house arrest. Goldblatt, indicted in August on charges including rape, obtaining a benefit by deceit, committing an indecent act and committing sodomy, received permission to leave his sister's home in Kfar Hess for daily walks within the borders of the moshav. Goldblatt made two additional requests: that he be allowed to make a film on an Ultra-Orthodox theme, and that he be permitted to stay at a female friend's house two days a week. Judge Noga Arad will rule on these petitions next Thursday, Army Radio reported. Goldblatt allegedly took advantage of girls, most of whom were minors, by lying, making false promises and exploiting his age and experience to convince them to have sex with him. Of the fives cases, the most serious were the first two, in which Goldblatt was charged with rape. In one incident that occurred in 1998, when the girl was 16 years old, Goldblatt allegedly invited her to take part in a script he had written about an incestuous relationship between a father and his daughter. The court agreed to the state's request to extend Goldblatt's remand in custody by a week to give it time to prepare its request to hold the suspect in custody until the end of proceedings. Goldblatt faces a sentence of up to 20 years in jail for the rape charges.