'DNA links Palestinian to TA parking lot rape scene'
Police are set to hold a line-up to see if victims, 17 and 18, can identify the chief suspect.
By YAAKOV LAPPINDNA sample 370(photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
DNA evidence has linked the 21-year-old Palestinian man suspected of subjecting a young couple to a prolonged rape and sexual assault to the scene of the crime, senior law enforcement sources confirmed Wednesday.Police arrested the West Bank resident in Tel Aviv this week on suspicion of following the couple to the Gan Ha’ir parking lot, brandishing a knife and forcing them into the parking lot’s bathroom, where he allegedly forced them to carry out sexual acts on one another and raped the 17-year-old girl.The DNA development came as police were set to hold a lineup to see if the couple could identify the suspect.The suspect, from the Nablus area, who cannot be named due to a media ban, denied raping the girl and said he did not carry out any sexual offenses.He has also denied being in possession of a knife. However, the suspect did say he stole the couple’s cellphones.Four additional Palestinians are under arrest on suspicion of assisting the suspect to flee and hide.Also on Wednesday, Channel 2 broadcast CCTV footage of the suspect working at a central Tel Aviv restaurant. The restaurant owner said the suspect turned up for work on the day after the incident “with red eyes, looking like he had been up the whole night.”The Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court extended his custody by nine days on Tuesday. During the remand hearing, it emerged that the suspect had been thrown out of his parent’s home in the West Bank, and had no fixed address in Tel Aviv, staying at various homes in the north of the city.
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