Israel seeks house arrest for defendant in 2009 TA gay center murders

“I believe the state’s witness is the one who sent the murderer, and he knows exactly who the murderer is,” Moti Felician continued. “He caught an innocent victim and proof of that is that in the end they didn’t believe him in the investigation.”

(Hagai)* Felician had confessed carrying out the attack to an undercover officer planted in his jail cell, after the state’s witness had turned him in. According to the indictment, Felician also told the officer he had carried out the shooting “because of the biblical edict to attack homosexuals.”

“You have everything on me, you can give yourself a pat on the back,” Felician reportedly told investigators after he realized he had spilled the beans.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/accused-in-gay-youth-club-murders-sent-to-house-arrest/

* I added first name for clarity

Following a police investigation lasting nearly four years, three suspects were arrested. Their arrests were announced on 5 June 2013. A gag order was placed on the details of the investigation. The three suspects, all residents of Pardes Katz, a neighborhood in Bnei Brak, ranged in ages from 20 to 40. It was later announced that a prominent activist in the Israeli LGBT community had also been detained for questioning.

The Jerusalem Post reported that the shooting was planned by two young men, one of whom believed his teenaged relative had been abused by an activist at the Bar-Noar center. After the shooting, the gunman and his accomplice fled into Tel Aviv. The pistol used by the killer was found by hikers in December 2012 and the suspects were arrested some months later.

On 11 June, the gag order was officially lifted. According to police, a few months before the killings, one of the suspects, then 15 years old, came to Barnoar struggling with his sexual identity. There he met with a veteran Barnoar figure, the fourth person to be arrested in the case. Hagai Felician, the teenager's relative, became aware that the teen had been seen a few times at Barnoar, and asked him what he was doing there. The teenager confirmed he had been going there, but that he was raped by the senior figure at the club. Felician allegedly decided to take matters into his own hands, and together with another suspect, Tarlan Hankishayev, and the state's witness, plotted to harm the activist. On the day of the shooting, Felician allegedly came to Barnoar looking for the activist. Unable to find him, Felician “lost it” and shot those present.

On 23 June 2013, charges were dropped against the other two suspects. On 10 July 2013, Hagai Felician was indicted on two counts of murder. Today he is also being set free.

Bar Noar double murder suspect Hagai Felician released after collapse of state case Hagai Felician, the Pardes Katz man in jail since June as the chief suspect in the Bar Noar double murder, was released to house arrest on Wednesday following the total collapse of the case against him.

Hagai's release comes a week after the state witness in the case against him was arrested on suspicion of fabricating evidence and obstruction of justice. Police made the decision to arrest the witness, “Z”, after they realized last week that he had lied to his handlers while he was working to build the case against Felician, and altered records of correspondence between he and the suspect.

On Tuesday, detectives held a confrontation between Felician and Z. On Tuesday morning Z was in a Tel Aviv court for his second remand extension, where he was ordered held for another week. Police are expected to bring other friends and acquaintances of Z in for questioning in the near future.

On Wednesday, Z's lawyer Yair Regev siad that he “hopes now police will focus on taking the investigation forward and solving this terrible murder.”

http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Suspect-in-LGBT-murder-case-Felician-released-to-house-arrest-343638

__________________________________________________

sorry to keep linking to other publications but I can't get past Ha'aretz paywall

with Haaretz just use a print link

misc/article-print-page/

Turn http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.576710
Into http://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/1.576710

You'll be able to see old articles.

Peace

how can charges be dismissed when Felician confessed? this whole thing almost sounds like collusion

double jeopardy etc. It's bizarre.