Last update - 00:00 29/11/2006
Sela hunt shifts back to T.A. after sighting of man in handcuffs
By Jonathan Lis and Roni Singer-Heruti, Haaretz Correspondents
Police forces on Wednesday shifted the focus of their search for escaped rapist Benny Sela back to the Tel Aviv area Wednesday, after a reported sighting of a man wearing handcuffs.
The latest search concentrated on Einstein Street in the Ramat Aviv neighborhood, close to Tel Aviv University.
Earlier in the day, police had headed to the northern city of Safed, following reports that Sela had been spotted in the area. Mobile command posts were positioned at all entries to the city.
Sela, 35, was convicted in December 1999 of raping 14 women and sentenced to 35 years in prison.
More than 2,000 police officers have been deployed throughout the country in an effort to capture Sela, with detectives voicing concern that he may commit a violent crime if he remains at large much longer. There have been more than 400 reported sightings of the escaped convict.
Meanwhile, detectives are still trying to uncover the details of Sela's Friday escape.
A police re-enactment of the escape from a Tel Aviv courthouse showed that the two policemen escorting the convicted serial rapist had not rushed to chase Sela or scale a fence in pursuit.
They said that after losing visual contact with Sela, they waited for a nearby gate to be unlocked so they could exit the compound.
"Until they realized what happened, until they reached the sentry post and he opened the gate for them, the contact with Sela was already lost and he managed to escape," a police official said.
On Tuesday, police conducted an extensive search for Sela in the area of the Ramat Gan mall. The search ended when police found that the motorcyclist who had apparently sparked the search was not actually the escaped prisoner.
Inquiry into escape
The re-enactment failed to resolve doubts over the security arrangements just prior to the escape. Media reports have suggested that the escorting officers had failed to handcuff Sela, as required by regulations.
Sela's two police escorts said he escaped by scaling a fence while handcuffed, but some police officials doubted the veracity of their testimony. To test the possibility, police staged the secret reenactment on Monday, during which a handcuffed police officer succeeded in jumping over the fence outside the Tel Aviv District Court.
"A doubt arose among the investigation team as to whether the testimony of the two police officers was correct, in light of the fact that it seemed surprising to us that a handcuffed person could jump over the walls of the detention center," said a senior police official. "After we tested the method and carried out a reenactment, it became clear to us that it was possible."
But some police are still not convinced that Sela was actually handcuffed when he escaped, primarily because two civilians told police that they saw him running away and do not recall him being handcuffed.
The rapist's escape from police custody has sparked widespread fear across the greater Tel Aviv area and the Sharon region to the north. Several Sharon residents have reported seeing Sela, and police expect him to be in the region because he used to live there and knows the area well.