Two of the many haredim who attacked police as they tried to rescue a
haredi soldier who had been attacked by a haredi mob in the haredi Mea
Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem Tuesday night were charged this
morning with aggravated assault of a police officer, disturbing a police
officer in the line of duty and rioting. Despite throwing metal bars, stones and glass bottles at police, a judge ordered the pair to be released to house arrest.
Haredim Who Threw Metal Bars, Stones, Glass Bottles At Police Indicted; Judge Orders House Arrest
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Two of the many haredim who attacked police as they tried to rescue a haredi soldier who had been attacked by a haredi mob in the haredi Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem Tuesday night were charged this morning with aggravated assault of a police officer, disturbing a police officer in the line of duty and rioting, Ynet reported.
Prosecutors want the remands of the two men, 22-year-old Joseph Brown (Braun) and 21-year-old Jacob Krichevsky extended through the end of trial. The two other arrested haredim will also be put on trial, but they have reportedly not been charged with assault.
Only those four arrests were made, despite the level and duration of the violence. Police said more arrests would come based on video footage of the attack on the haredi soldier and the riot, but none have yet been made.
Meanwhile, last night another haredi soldier walking in the neighborhood was attacked by a mob of haredim. and had to be rescued by police.
In that attack, the soldier was walking at the edge of Mea Shearim on Shmuel HaNavi Street when a commecial van pulled along side him and haredim inside pelted him with garbage and dumped water on him has they insulted him and called him names. The soldier fled into a building and called police. No arrests were made.
Today’s indictment of Brown and Krichevsky lays out the details of the attack on the haredi soldier.
• About 7 pm Tuesday, a haredi soldier came to Mea Shearim to visit his uncle who lives there.
• The soldier was dressed in his military uniform and was wearing a yarmulke.
• As he walked in the neighborhood, haredim yelled slurs at him and shouted at him to leave.
• About 160 feet from his uncle’s office, a bag of trash was thrown on the haredi soldier and a mob began to crowd around him.
• The haredi soldier was able to run to his uncle’s office. He locked himself inside the office along with a relative and called police.
• When police arrived to save him, the haredi mob grew.
• The mob threw rocks, iron bars, chairs and buckets of water at police.
• Police ordered the mob to disperse.
• The mob – including brown and Krichevsky – refused.
• Brown threw bottles and stones at police.
• Two policemen grabbed Brown and placed him under arrest.
• Brown tried to escape. As he was being taken to a police vehicle, Brown also called out to friends in the mob, asking them to help him escape.
• Krichevsky threw stones, metal bars and glass bottles at police. Some of the stones and metal bars he threw struck a police officer.
• Two police officers arrested Krichevsky, who resisted arrest, kicking oficers and spitting on them.
"With these actions, the defendants congregated with others, with a common purpose and violated the peace in a manner that threatened the public. The defendants also attacked police with objects with the intention of obstructing police from carrying out their duties. Also they acted intentionally to interfere with the police,” the indictment reportedly reads.
The prosecution’s petition to remand Brown and Krichevsky until the of their trials added that "the gravity of the offenses attributed to them and the circumstances of the execution establish reasonable grounds for concern that the release of defendants would endanger public or national security, and thus the conclusion is reached that there are no real alternatives to [extended] detention."
The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court denied prosecutor’s request and ordered Brown and Krichevsky released to house arrest.
But the Magistrate’s Court also ordered that the release of Brown and Krichevsky to house arrest be delayed in order to allow the prosecution enough time to appeal the decision to the Jerusalem District Court.