A 25-year-old man from the northern Arab town of Daburiyya was indicted Tuesday on charges of kidnapping and severely abusing a man for hours over a debt.
According to the indictment filed by the Northern District Prosecutor’s Office in the Nazareth District Court, the suspect abducted the victim earlier this month and took him to a cabin near Afula, where he and an accomplice allegedly beat and burned him with a heated iron rod.
'Bring the money or die': man Kidnapped, tortured for hours in northern Israel over debt
(Video: Israel Police)
The case began on Dec. 12, when a northern resident called the police emergency hotline to report her husband missing. She said she had received a message from him stating that he had been kidnapped and was being held in a wooden structure, and asking her to alert authorities.
Officers who arrived at the location found the man bruised across his body and suffering from burns in multiple places. He said his captors had fled after noticing officers approaching.
Investigators said the victim had been at a pizzeria in Afula hours earlier when the suspect and others, to whom he allegedly owed money, asked him to get into a vehicle to talk. The victim said he refused and expressed fear, but once inside the car he was attacked.
“Where are you going? Running from me? I caught you, now I’ll show you. We’ll get there and talk,” the suspect allegedly told him, according to the indictment.
The men then drove to a cabin in the area, where the suspect and his accomplice allegedly beat the victim repeatedly. At one point, the suspect heated an iron rod in a fireplace and told the victim, “I’m heating the rod. Start thinking how to settle this now.”
The attackers pressed the heated rod against the victim’s body, causing burns, according to the indictment. Later that evening, the suspect allegedly pressed an object resembling a handgun to the victim’s head and said, “What do you prefer, bring the money or die now?”
The assault continued through the night until the attackers left the victim with another man assigned to guard him. The victim asked the guard for his phone, saying he only wanted to scroll through it. After receiving the device, he managed to send his location to his wife, who alerted Northern District officers.
Following a manhunt lasting several weeks, authorities arrested one of the suspects on Jan. 25. He was indicted on charges of kidnapping for extortion, extortion by threats, extortion by force, aggravated assault and unlawful imprisonment. The search for the second suspect is ongoing.