Domrani's lawyer says crime boss not in hiding, police know where to find him

Southern kingpin's organization dealt a serious blow with killing of one associate in Asheklon car bomb last week.

By BEN HARTMAN
Israel Police press briefing370 (photo credit: Ben Hartman )
Israel Police press briefing370
(photo credit: Ben Hartman )
Mobster Shalom Domrani is not in hiding and has not been summoned to give testimony to police investigators following the car bomb last week that killed one of his associates and severely wounded one of his top lieutenants, his attorney told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
“Shalom is not in hiding, the police know exactly where he is and if they want to get a hold of him they know how,” said attorney Moshe Sherman, adding that rumors that his client had gone underground to avoid being called in for questioning are lies and media speculation.
“Why would he run? He’s not a suspect in the murder and if they ask him if he obstructed justice or tampered with the investigation he’ll just say no anyway,” Sherman added.
He said he believes that in the coming days his client will report for questioning by police.
The blast that shook an Ashkelon neighborhood Thursday afternoon blew the legs off top Domrani soldier Avi Biton, leaving him in critical condition and killing his assistant Jackie Benita, who was driving the car at the time of the detonation.
Officers from the Lahav 433 National Crime Unit are in a race against time to find those responsible for the bombing before Domrani’s associates, out of fear that they will find them and take their revenge, leaving more bodies on the streets of southern Israel.
Criticism was leveled at police in the press on Sunday and at the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court on Saturday night, where six Domrani associates were brought in on suspicion of taking the CCTV footage and control box from a residential building in the city where Biton’s car was parked before the bombing. The footage, which was later returned to police by one of the suspects – Sharon Kadosh – reportedly includes footage of the person who affixed the remote-detonated bomb to the car.
Kadosh’s lawyer Amit Weizmann said police arrested his client only because they were embarrassed that for over 24 hours they were not able to locate the site where the car had been parked prior to the bombing, while Domrani’s people managed to make it to the scene shortly after the explosion.
Kadosh was given a key to the building by a resident and the footage was given to him by the company in charge of security for the building.
Weizmann said on Saturday that his client, a cousin of Avi Biton, went to remove the footage from the building so he could give it to police “in order to help them find the person who hurt his cousin.”
Thursday’s bombing was the latest in a series of underworld killings over the past weeks and the brazen nature of the mid-day bombing spurred Israel Police Insp.-Gen. Yochanan Danino to hold a meeting with top officers on Saturday and issue a statement vowing the force would not take such attacks lying down.
In addition, the Knesset’s Internal Affairs and Environment Committee announced Sunday that it will hold a hearing on Wednesday to be aired live on TV to examine police efforts to fight organized crime.