16 haredim remanded for 1 more day over Shabbat riots

"The holy Sabbath will defeat you," one of the suspects shouts before the hearing. "You are fighting against the Holy One Blessed Be He."

By DAN IZENBERG
Police remove haredi protesters 248.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
Police remove haredi protesters 248.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
Seventeen haredim cuffed at the wrists and ankles filed into two courtrooms in the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court on Sunday for hearings in which the police asked to extend their remands, after they were arrested during weekend disturbances in Jerusalem over the opening of the Carta parking lot near the capital's Old City. By the end of the day, 16 of the 17 had been remanded for another 24 hours. The last suspect was allowed to go home under restrictions. The hearing involving 11 of the suspects who had refused to identify themselves was held before Judge Miriam Lifshitz in two shifts at around 1 p.m. The other six, who had given the police their names, were brought before Judge Irit Cohen three hours later. One of the haredim entered Lifshitz's courtroom chanting "Shabbes koidesh" (holy Sabbath) over and over again. Another wore a tallit and covered his face with it. Before the hearing began, one of the suspects shouted, "The holy Sabbath will defeat you. You are fighting against the Holy One Blessed Be He." In the first hearing, police investigators Shmuel Ben-Amotz and Miki Shoshan told Lifshitz that they wanted to keep the suspects in jail longer so that they could learn their names and begin to question them. They did not make specific charges against any of the suspects. The defense lawyer, Yair Nehorai, told the court that in previous cases, the judges had refused to agree to keep suspects in jail and argued that they could not be remanded when there were no specific allegations against each one of them. Lifshitz agreed and ordered all 11 suspects to be released, as long as they gave the police their names and would stay out of Jerusalem for the following four weekends between 4 p.m. on Friday and 8 a.m. on Shabbat. However, the police appealed the decision to Jerusalem District Court, which overturned it, and ordered the suspects held for 24 hours. In the remand hearing on the other six, police prosecutor Yoram Hatan charged that one suspect had been caught with a knife in his possession, a second was suspected of throwing fruit and vegetables at police and a third had moved a garbage bin into the middle of the street. The suspect in possession of a knife explained that he carried it in order to cut the bread at seuda shlishit - the third meal on Shabbat afternoon. Cohen ordered five of the suspects held for another 24 hours and released the sixth under restrictions. According to Shoshan, since the beginning of the riots, 30 haredim have been charged, and 15 have been remanded in custody until the end of legal proceedings.