Eilat rape: Two minors detained, hotel manager released on house arrest
Tourism Ministry creates rape prevention team
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFIsraelis demonstrate against sexual violence after the rape of a 16-year-old girl in Eilat last week, Jerusalem, August 23, 2020(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Two additional minors were arrested on Monday afternoon under suspicion of taking part in the alleged gang-rape of a 16-year-old in the Red Sea Hotel in Eilat, bringing up the number of men arrested for taking part in the rape to 13.The newly-arrested teens were taken in for interrogations with Israel Police.The hotel manager, Pnina Maman, was put in house arrest after bursting into tears during the court hearing, where she expressed that she herself had been raped when she was 14 and has since suffered from anxiety.The judge nevertheless expressed doubt that Maman did not know about the incident.Another suspect, a 28-year-old from Hadera, is suspected of possessing the footage of the incident. His attorney quipped that his defendant had left the room along with the victim's friend.The court ordered the release of one of the suspected rapists from the incident, as well as that of the hotel manager, into house arrest. However, the police asked to delay both decisions. The arrests of some 10 suspects were extended.As a result of the incident, Tourism Minister Assaf Zamir announced that the ministry had put together a team that deals exclusively with combating sexual assault of hotel guests in Israel.The team will formulate a plan with new procedures which will increase awareness regarding incidents of sexual violence in the hotel sector.On Thursday, the manager of the hotel told N12 that there is no evidence that the incident occurred there, and that if it had, the management on location “would have noticed.”The hotel security chief said that “the girl and her friend had a hand in the affair,” according to N12.The victim was vacationing with a friend in Eilat and had become inebriated when she was allegedly gang-raped by a group of men. Although the original suspected number of men stood at 30, that number has slowly decreased.The victim is in a serious mental state following the traumatic incident, and she, along with the friend who had been with her, is being escorted by a police youth investigator.
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