BREAKING NEWS

Court orders soccer player suspected in murder to custody

Lod District Court on Friday ordered that a foreign player in Israel's top soccer league suspected of involvement in the murder of 20-year-old Zehava Chikol remain in custody, overturning a lower court's ruling to release him to house arrest.
Police had appealed the earlier decision to release the suspect and allow him to play in a league game on Saturday.
The player, whose name is banned from publication, was arrested on Wednesday night along with a friend, Congo native Eritsia Akalsongo, on suspicion of murdering Chikol, whose body was found half-naked outside Netanya’s Carmel Hotel.
The suspect will remain in custody until at least Wednesday after District Court Judge Ahikam Stoller ruled that the man was a flight risk because he is a citizen of a foreign country.