Police arrest sister of suspect in TA firebombings

Remand extended for woman suspected of trying to hamper investigation and helping in conspiracy behind attacks on African migrants.

By BEN HARTMAN
Daycare owner shows firebomb damage 390 (photo credit: Ben Hartman)
Daycare owner shows firebomb damage 390
(photo credit: Ben Hartman)
Police announced Tuesday the arrest of a second suspect in a series of firebombings that targeted African migrants in south Tel Aviv last Thursday night.
Though there is a gag order on the case, banning the publication of the suspect’s name and her photo, she is the sister of the primary suspect, Haim Mula, a 20-yearold resident of Tel Aviv’s Shapira neighborhood.
The suspect was brought before the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, where her remand was extended until Wednesday.
Police said the suspicions against her were not that she threw the Molotov cocktails, but that she tried to hamper the police investigation and helped in the conspiracy behind the crime.
Mula allegedly threw Molotov cocktails at a day-care center and three homes of African asylum-seekers in the Shapira neighborhood in south Tel Aviv this past Friday.
His lawyer Jacob Kahan said no one had told him what evidence existed against his client, who has only a few minor arrests on his record.
Also, photos of Mula – taken at a Friday protest in the Shapira neighborhood against the firebombing – emerged on Sunday. The series of photos showed him clashing with protesters, ripping their placards and verbally assaulting demonstrators.
They also showed police whisking him away.
Mula’s arrest was the first after the string of attacks late last Thursday night, which targeted three Shapira homes. The neighborhood has become a flashpoint for tensions between Israelis and the thousands of asylum seekers and migrant workers who have moved into the area, many of whom are from Africa and southeast Asia.
One of the three buildings also housed a day-care center run by Blessing Akachukneu, a native of Nigeria. No one was hurt at the day-care center, though there were four young children sleeping inside when the incident took place.