Police refuse to confirm claim of Acre mosque interrogations

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Galilee Police refused to confirm a media report which claimed that the Imam and Muezin of an Old City mosque were interrogated over suspicions of incitement a month and a half after the outbreak of riots between Arabs and Jews in the city. In October, police said they were hunting for a Muslim man believed to have taken control of the speaker system of a mosque in the old city on Wednesday evening, and who wrongly told the city's Arab community that an Arab driver had been killed by a Jewish mob, causing hundreds of Arabs armed with axes and sticks to march on east Acre. "Since the investigation is not yet over, we won't discuss its details at this stage," Galilee Police spokesman Ch.-Insp. Eran Shaked said on Monday. In an interview with The Jerusalem Post in October, Acre Mayor Shimon Lankri said he heard the incitement being blared on the mosque's speakers. "He called on the youths to march on the eastern part of the city," Lankri recalled. "Because of him, 200 masked youths with axes ruined an entire area, and this is unforgivable. All the lines have been crossed."