>> Charges dropped against gay youth club murder suspect
Quelques jours après l’avoir libéré de son assignation à résidence, le Ministère public israélien vient également d’abandonner toutes les charges contre Hagai Felician, cet homme inculpé en juillet 2013 pour l’attaque à l’arme automatique du Bar Noar.
Il avait causé la mort d’une ado de 16 ans et d’un jeune homme de 24 ans, laissant également, une triste ardoise de quelques onze blessés graves parmi les participants à une réunion de jeunes gays et lesbiennes.
L’implication du suspect reposait principalement sur le échanges et la correspondance fournis par un individu, qui aurait en fait falsifié ces documents. Il a depuis été lui-même inculpé pour faux témoignage.
Mais Hagai Felician avait pourtant bien parlé de l’attentat à un informateur placé dans sa cellule, en lui expliquant même avoir agi « en raison de l’injonction biblique d’attaquer les homosexuels ». Lorsqu’il a finalement réalisé que sa conversation avait été enregistrée, il a balancé avec amertume aux enquêteurs, qu’ils pouvaient enfin être satisfaits puisqu’ils avaient désormais tous les preuves nécessaires.
Il semble selon les conclusions de la police, que Hagai Felician cherchait surtout à atteindre Shaul Ganon, un militant de l’association LGBT en question, parce qu’il aurait eu soi-disant des rapports sexuels avec son frère cadet, âgé alors de 15 ans au moment des faits reprochés.
Cette enquête est considérée comme la plus coûteuse de l’histoire de la police israélienne, avec plus d’un millier de personnes interrogées, pour au final repartir de zéro.
Selon l’acte d’accusation, le 1er Août 2009, Felician, serait ainsi entré dans le bar Noar, sur la rue Nahmani de Tel Aviv, le visage masqué, avec l’intention ferme d’assassiner Shaul Ganon, et toutes les autres personnes qui seraient présentes dans l’enceinte de l’établissement, parce que ” cette haine de leurs préférences sexuelles. “
Les supporteurs de Hagai Felician, qui clamaient son “innocence” sont bien évidemment ravis.
Terry G.
STOP HOMOPHOBIE
>> Two weeks after releasing him to house arrest, the state on Sunday dropped charges against the primary suspect in a deadly shooting spree at a gay youth club in Tel Aviv that left two dead and 11 injured in 2009.
Hagai Felician was indicted in July 2013 for murder and attempted murder in what the prosecution said was a hate crime.
He was released to house arrest less than two weeks ago after spending eight months in jail pending murder charges.
On Sunday, the charges against him were dropped entirely, meaning that even if new evidence surfaces tying him to the case, he cannot be tried a second time.
Instead, the prosecution is due Monday to indict the state’s witness who testified against Felician on charges of obstruction of justice and giving false testimony.
The witness was arrested in early February and remanded later that month after police suspected the testimony he had given against Felician was false. Last week, Tel Aviv District Attorney Nava Schieler canceled the state’s agreement with the witness.
On Sunday, Felician’s supporters celebrated the state’s decision.
“We’re overjoyed,” said his attorney, Moshe Yohai. “Hagai’s truth has prevailed.”
Last month, Felician’s brother Moti said he believed the state’s witness was the one who sent the murderer to Bar Noar, the youth club.
“He knows exactly who the murderer is,” Moti Felician said. “He caught an innocent victim and proof of that is that in the end they didn’t believe him in the investigation.”
Felician had confessed to 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.
Police also have recordings of Felician saying, “We did it smoothly, no one found out, it was quiet for four years.”
Felician told the state’s witness that he had carried out the attack at the Bar Noar because his 15-year-old relative was sexually assaulted by a well-known LGBT activist.
The investigation into the attack was the most expensive in the history of the Israel Police, with authorities questioning over 1,000 people.
According to the indictment, on August 1, 2009, Felician, his face hidden by a mask, entered the Bar Noar on Tel Aviv’s Nahmani street with the intention of shooting activist Shaul Ganon and anyone else inside out of “hatred for their sexual preferences.”
