Last update - 00:00 28/11/2006
Ramat Gan search for Sela ends in case of mistaken identity
By Haaretz Service
The police manhunt for escaped serial rapist Benny Sela on Tuesday evening in Ramat Gan ended a few hours after it began, when it became clear that the man seen by police was not in fact Sela.
The chase, which included helicopter support, began after an officer said he saw a man who resembled Sela riding a motorycle in Bnei Brak. The suspect has thus far evaded large forces of police and the abandoned motorycle was found in an industrial zone near the Ramat Gan mall.
Other police teams are scouring the Beit Leed area near Netanya after a young woman reported that a man had attempted to attack her at a nearby intersection.
The woman, 20, told a police hotline that a man had grabbed her and tried to drag her into a grove near a local military base. The woman, who fled and alerted police, was unable to give an accurate description of the man's features, due to the darkness.
Forces also returned in large numbers to search the Sharon region after receiving alleged witness reports of escaped serial rapist Benny Sela in Gush Tel Mond.
The police hotline has received over 400 reports of sightings of Sela, but there were still no reports of solid leads as the case entered its fifth day on Tuesday.
A horse farm owner reported Tuesday that a man of similar appearance to Sela entered his farm, apparently looking for food. He said the man fled quickly after. Police were scouring the Sharon region two days earlier, following other reported sightings.
Detectives are being sent to investigate every lead, police said.
Sela, 35, who escaped a police escort on Friday, was convicted in December, 1999 of raping 14 women, and sentenced to 35 years in prison.
More than 2,000 police have been deployed throughout the country in an effort to capture him, with detectives voicing concern that he may commit a violent crime if he remains at large much longer.
The Prisons Authority and the Israel Police were warned a month ago that Sela might attempt to escape, Haaretz learned on Monday.
A police officer who escorts prisoners with the Shfela District police sent the letter to national police headquarters, the officer in charge of holding cells at the Nitzan prison, and the commander of the Eshel prison, where Sela was serving his sentence.
Shfela District police officers who specialize in escorting convicts brought Sela to the Rishon Letzion Magistrate's Court five times over the past six months. They used tactics employed for a "runner," or a convict with a high escape risk.
However, an October 19 court visit led one officer to write a detailed letter regarding the chances of Sela trying to escape.
The officer wrote that at the end of the legal proceedings, the officers approached Sela with handcuffs and leg irons to restrain him for transfer. Sela opposed them, arguing that he had still not been given a copy of the transcript of the deliberations. The officers insisted and
had to use physical force to restrain Sela.
Later, Sela filed a complaint against what he considered excessive use of force against him. The police maintained that the level of force was reasonable given his resistance.
Chained, Sela was put in a patrol car, but he fainted during the journey. The police maintain that he faked it.
"Instead of pulling over and calling an ambulance, the police officers consulted a more senior officer, who told them not to stop but to drive directly to the Ramle police station and have a doctor check the prisoner," Superintendent Yifrah Duchovny, commander of the Shfela District police, said on Monday.
Sela was brought to the station. A doctor examined him, and sent him for more tests at Assaf Harofeh hospital. More policemen were called in to accompany Sela, and he was taken to hospital, where tests showed he was fine.
At the end of the day, a number of escort officers concluded that this had been yet another attempt by Sela to probe for ways to escape. The officers described his behavior as provocative, and this led them to prepare a letter warning of possible future attempts.
"We asked one of the officers, called Yehoshua, to record the incident. The officer described the events in the letter, and wrote that based on his experience, he believes Sela's behavior was a trick to probe for a breach through which to escape," Duchovny said.
The officers recommended that Sela's escort be stricter and that the special escort unit of the Prisons Authority, Nachshon, be deployed in these cases.