House arrest for Netanya lawyer charged with suborning witness

Judge denies police request to extend remand by three days.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
judge 88 (photo credit: )
judge 88
(photo credit: )
A Kfar Saba Magistrate's Court released a Netanya lawyer to house arrest on Friday after police charged him with attempting to persuade a man to cancel a complaint against his client. The police had sought to have the suspect's remand extended by three days. No details about the lawyer can be published due to a media ban, which was ordered by the court at his request. Police arrested the lawyer on Thursday when he arrived at a Netanya Magistrate's Court to represent his client, and charged him with subverting a police investigation and suborning a witness. The client had been detained earlier in the week on suspicion of extorting the owner of a barber shop. According to police, the lawyer asked the shop owner to cancel the complaint. They say he also persuaded other witnesses to remain silent. Meanwhile, Adam Abutbul, son of alleged crime family boss Charlie Abutbul, was also released to house arrest on Friday together with three other suspects. The four had been detained on Thursday after police pulled their vehicle over and allegedly found them to be in possession of a firearm. In addition, the National Fraud Unit arrested another Abutbul son, Aviv, on Thursday in an operation police said was part of their war on organized crime. He was charged with possession of an improvised firearm that was loaded and equipped with a silencer. Abutbul is the third underworld figure to be charged with possession of a firearm and silencer in recent weeks, joining Nissim Alperon and Amir Mulner. Mulner is a suspect in the car-bomb slaying last month of Alperon's brother Ya'acov.