RAMALLAH, Aug 12 (JMCC) - An Israeli court in Petah Tikvah has released Haim Pearlman, a former Israeli settler accused of murdering four Palestinians and injuring seven others, to house arrest this week, according to
AFP.
Pearlman will only have to remain in house arrest for two weeks before being released, and six months before being allowed to leave the country.
...The Israeli courts administration refused to confirm any information about the decision to release him, telling AFP it was a confidential file.
Pearlman was initially arrested on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and illegal possession of weapons, police said.
But a judge at Petah Tikvah Magistrates' Court said earlier this week that police had insufficient evidence to file an indictment against him, the Haaretz daily reported.
These are serious allegations of murder, and the suspect has been held for a month, Judge Nahum Sternlicht was quoted as saying. Evidence that led to his arrest has been assembled but it was not sufficient to file an indictment.
Media reports said Pearlman was a member of the banned anti-Arab Kach movement, a racist group which advocates the forcible expulsion of all Arabs from the area known as Greater Israel, which includes Israel, the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip...
Read more at
AFP...