Defendant in court. 'Dangerous'
Photo: Gil Yohanan
Man charged with sending death threat to judges
Police say 50-year-old suspected of sending fax to Courts Administration in which he threatened to kill random judge with rifle or missile is dangerous. 'Letter's content does not allow for protection of one judge or another, and from here stems the danger'
An indictment was filed Sunday with the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court against a man from central Israel arrested on suspicion of threatening to murder judges. Police requested the man's remand be extended until the end of proceedings, claiming he was dangerous and should be kept in custody.
According to the indictment, which was filed by Superintendent Aryeh Brand of the Jerusalem District Prosecution, the 50-year-old suspect, whose name has not been cleared for publication, sent the threat via fax to the Courts Administration office in the end of February.
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The fax read: "Very soon, we will execute a male or female judge, using very lethal weapons. A missile or a rifle. A Kalashnikov with a full cartridge. This is a personal guarantee. A judge has already been killed here. We have quite a few directions. The judges here are low-lives and trash."
The message was automatically transferred to the e-mail account of Courts Administration Director Judge Moshe Gal.
The indictment read: "By these actions the defendant threatened the complainants in every way, including illegally harming their person, their freedom, their assets and their reputation and livelihood as judges in Israel, in an attempt to intimidate the judges or belittle them."
Prior convictions
The police's request to keep the suspect in custody until the end of legal proceedings against him read: "The man's dangerousness can be seen in the content of the letter. In his letter, the man threatens all judges of the State of Israel with murder."The content is not directed at any specific judge, and this is precisely why the risk it entails should be emphasized, because its content does not allow the legal system to protect one judge or another, and this demonstrates the clear danger the man poses to the public's security."
The request further read: "The respondent's letter threatens the basis of the legal system in the State of Israel, by bringing its judges into the line of fire without giving them a weapon – whether or not the respondent meant to realize his plans. The letter constitutes rampant and unrestrained incitement, which endangers Israel's judges and undermines the regime's stability, as it showed intent to physically harm one of the arms and symbols of the government."
According to the request, the suspect claimed in his interrogation that his actions stemmed from a judges refusal to show leniency with him regarding the payment of a fine and that he had no real plans of realizing the threat or hurting a judge.
However, he said that he was ordered to pay the fine a number of years ago and has no real explanation as to why he carried out the act now. "This is a man whose behavior and motives cannot be predicted in advance," the request read.
The police also argued that the man has prior convictions of property offenses, fraud and violence and he had stood before judges a number of times in the past.
