The Tel Aviv District Court extended the detention of Bat Yam residents Lahav Nagauker, 20, and Netanel Binyamin, 25, following their arrest on suspicion of brutally beating Saeed Mousa, an Arab Israeli, in the Tel Aviv suburb, last week. The police, who presented the court with a prosecutor's statement, has accused the two of attempted murder.
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According to the police, the suspects, along with a mob of rioters, incited against Arabs and looted and threw chairs and bottles at Arab-owned stores. When they noticed an Arab man driving nearby, they pulled him out of the car and beat him brutally, punching him and hitting him in the face with a scooter and bicycle. Binyamin continued to beat the man as he lay unconscious on the ground as Nagauker spat on the victim and smashed his car window.
Binyamin's lawyer said his client had cooperated with the investigation and given a statement in which he basically admitted to his role in the attack. He said no connection had been found between participants in the attack, which he said was spontaneous. Binyamin also claimed he had acted in self-defense, saying he thought the driver was about to attack him.
Nagauker, for his part, denied he had acted violently or taken part in the incident, insisting his role in the assault had been limited to spitting on the complainant's face once he was on the ground.
Prosecutors sought to extend their detention by five days in light of the severity of the charges and the need for the attorney general to sign off on the filing of an indictment.
In a statement explaining her decision to extend their detention, Judge Christina Hilou-Assad said: "Given the nature of the offenses and the evidentiary infrastructure gathered thus far, I am convinced there exists so-called evidentiary infrastructure for the filing of an indictment against the suspects and that there are grounds for an arrest."
She said, "The danger lies in the suspects' very involvement, the extent of their involvement in the events of that evening, including violent events involving property that ended in the brutal beating of a man. The High Court of Justice has already determined that the danger lies also in the period we now find ourselves in, and is not examined in a vacuum."
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