TA parking lot rape suspect named

Court lifts gag order on identity of 21-year-old Palestinian from the Nablus region suspected of Gan Ha'ir rape.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Gan Ha'ir rape suspect Ahmed Bani Jaber in court 370 (photo credit: Channel 10)
Gan Ha'ir rape suspect Ahmed Bani Jaber in court 370
(photo credit: Channel 10)
The 21-year-old Palestinian from the Nablus region suspected of subjecting a couple to a vicious assault and rape in parking lot below Tel Aviv city hall on May 11 has been named as Ahmed Bani Jaber.
Media were permitted to name the suspect on Wednesday after the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court lifted a media ban, which was in place to allow police to investigate the suspicions freely.
During a court hearing, attended by the suspect and his three attorneys, the police representative to court, Yoni Hirschoren, said that a prosecutor's statement would be submitted to the court, a procedure that is a prelude to imminent formal charges.
Jabri denies raping the couple, saying he merely robbed them of their phones.
Last week, police said DNA evidence linked the suspect to the incident.
Police arrested the West Bank resident in Tel Aviv earlier this month on suspicion of following the couple to the Gan Ha’ir parking lot, brandishing a knife and forcing them into the garage’s bathroom, where he allegedly forced them to carry out sexual acts on one another and raped the 17- year-old girl.