(JNi.media) Meir Ettinger’s attorney Yuval Singer told the press after a court hearing of the case against his client, the grandson of Rabbi Meir Kahane, that that interrogators of the “Jewish Division” of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, used violence in questioning his client.
Ettinger has been declared the Jewish division’s “number one target,” over his alleged leadership of a group of “Jewish extremists.”
“The agents are allowed to use [violent] measures when it comes to the ‘ticking bomb’ procedure,” Singer said. “[Ettinger] is not defined that way, he was being detained on suspicion of criminal activities that have already happened, not an administrative detainee who is arrested to prevent activities that are yet to take place. We will inform the AG and ask that those responsible are dealt with under the law.”
In response to the lawyer’s complaint, the Shin Bet told NRG: “Meir Ettinger’s claims are false and utterly baseless.”
The court on Tuesday afternoon extended Meir Ettinger’s arrest by six days, remanding him to Shin Bet custody until Sunday.
Ettinger was arrested for questioning Tuesday, on suspicions of involvement in an extremist Jewish organization. He has already been expelled for a year by administrative order from Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem and currently resides in Tsfat.
Police believe he was behind the arson more than a month ago at the Church of the Multiplication of Loaves and Fish near the Sea of Galilee.
According to a Shin Bet announcement that followed the church arson, there has been an anti-Christian, organized activity among extremist Jews, who had been involved in damaging property at the Deir Rafat convent, west of Jerusalem, in April 2014, and also attempted to sabotage the Pope’s visit to Israel in May of the same year, but without success.
Ettinger’s blog encourages fighting against “idol worshiping” in Israel, and he includes Christian structures among places of idol worship.
Ettinger’s attorney also said on Tuesday that “the feeling is that this is an arrest for public relations, rather than for investigative purposes. Suffice it to note that Mr. Ettinger has appeared on his own at the Shin Bet on Friday, when he was summoned for questioning, and the interrogation was delayed until today on his request and with approval from the investigating unit.”
“It looks like the difficult events of recent days have caused the relevant units to invest much effort in creating an impression of their taking action, and what better way to show this than arresting the grandson of Rabbi Kahane to satisfy the hungry masses,” attorney Singer said, adding, “I have no doubt that the highly publicized arrest will end with a whimper and without any charges.”