After ten months of administrative detention in an isolation cell, without charges or an indictment, never mind a trial, prisoner Meir Ettinger, grandson of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, is expected to be released—probably to home detention, a Shabak representative told the Lod District Court on Tuesday.
The court ruled that the clandestine police must determine in one week which limiting conditions it would like to see placed on Ettinger after his release, possibly on June 1.
Last summer, while he was being interrogated by the Jewish Section of the Shabak, Ettinger was presented with a six-month administrative detention order signed by Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon. A few weeks later, an additional administrative decree signed by Ya’alon moved Ettinger to an isolation cell when the prison authorities expressed concern that Ettinger was influencing the other prisoners. When the six months were up, Ya’alon signed another, four-month decree, the maximum allowed by law for an extension.
One month ago, the rightwing public was enraged when Ya’alon refused to allow Ettinger to leave jail for a few hours in order to attend his firstborn son’s circumcision in Jerusalem.
So far, Meir Kahane’s great-grandson, Netzach Binyamin, who is two months old, has not been served with a Ya’alon administrative detention writ, though the prison authorities did suggest the brit mila be performed in jail.