Soldier who threatened gays has remand extended by 3 days

Freimark allegedly wrote online, "You will see another attack on the homos, this time a bigger one."

By DAN IZENBERG
police gay shooting 248.88 (photo credit: AP)
police gay shooting 248.88
(photo credit: AP)
The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court on Sunday extended by three days the remand of Shmuel Freimark, a 20-year-old soldier in the haredi battalion of the Nahal Brigade, who allegedly threatened on the Internet that there would be another attack on the homosexual community which would be more serious than last week's. Freimark, his arms and legs chained, arrived at the court at 2 p.m. in an unmarked police car and was quickly ushered into a small courtroom. Photographers and journalists descended on the suspect, who refused to answer their questions or make a statement. Later, he was taken to another courtroom for the remand hearing. The resident of the capital's Neveh Ya'acov neighborhood was arrested on Saturday evening on suspicion that he had published threats on a gay-lesbian Web site prior to the memorial rally held at Kikar Rabin in Tel Aviv for two people killed last week by a gunman at the support center for gay youth in downtown Tel Aviv. In one message, Freimark allegedly wrote, "You will see another attack on the homos, this time a bigger one." In a second one, he allegedly wrote, "A second attack on the community coming soon. Be prepared. Don't say you didn't know." According to police, after his arrest on Saturday night, he confessed to writing the messages. He has a police record for property violations and disturbances of public order. According to police, Freimark was found to be in possession of a weapon other than his army rifle. During the remand hearing before judge Arnon Darel, police presented secret documents allegedly testifying to the fact that Freimark posed a threat to public safety. The suspect's lawyer, Roni Michaeli of the Public Defender's Office, told reporters that the suspicions against his client had "gone beyond all proportion. He wrote something in a blog, nothing more." Michaeli added that Freimark had acted out of anger because the haredi community was being blamed for killings it did not commit, even though there was no evidence linking any haredim to last week's murders at the gay center in Tel Aviv.