Bar Noar suspect's brother released to house arrest in alleged rape of lawyer

Yaakov Felician denies raping woman, passes lie detector; brother Hagai has remand extended in LGBT center shooting.

By BEN HARTMAN
Suspect in Bar Noar shooting 370 (photo credit: Ben Hartman)
Suspect in Bar Noar shooting 370
(photo credit: Ben Hartman)
Yaakov Felician of Bnei Brak was released to house arrest on Sunday for his part in the alleged rape of a female attorney in June.
Felician, the brother of the central suspect in the Bar Noar murders, Hagai Felician, will spend the next 15 days on house arrest while police try to build their case.
The decision to release Yaakov Felician from custody was based largely on the fact that he recently passed a lie detector test that focused on whether he forced the lawyer to engage in sexual relations with him against her will.
Felician, a known associate of the Avi Ruhan crime family, was arrested on June 21 on suspicion of having raped a female lawyer the night before, after she arranged a meeting with him to offer her services to Hagai Felician’s defense team.
At the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court on Sunday, Hagai Felician’s remand was extended an additional four days while police work toward an indictment. He remains the central suspect in the crime and police believe he is the one who ran inside the Bar Noar LGBT youth center in Tel Aviv on August 1, 2009, and opened fire, killing two and wounding 11.
The other two suspects in the case, Tarlan Hankishayev and a younger relative of Felician’s, were both released last week, due to the shortage of evidence against them.