Last update - 00:00 01/12/2006
Karadi: Ease with which Sela escaped 'embarrassing'
By Roni Singer-Heruti and Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondents
Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi said Saturday that despite ongoing searches, police are not aware of the whereabouts of escaped serial rapist Benny Sela. In an interview with Israel Radio, Karadi said "police are conducting searches in places where he is likely to be located."
Karadi added that "it was embarrassing to see the intolerable ease with which Sela was able to flee from the police escorting him."
"This is an unpleasant failure," he said.
Karadi announced Friday that the number of police forces taking part in the Tel Aviv hunt for escaped serial rapist Benny Sela will not change in the coming days.
Karadi also said that in addition to the police forces, thousands of volunteers will join the manhunt over the weekend.
The decision was made despite what Tel Aviv district commander, Maj.-Gen. David Tzur said in various forums last week. Tzur maintains that he needs only a third of the manpower allocated in order to continue the search.
The large number of police officers and volunteers expected to take part in the search this weekend is intended to give Tel Aviv residents a sense of security. Last week, Tel Aviv police were reinforced with 1,000 police officers from other districts.
An internal document that was distributed throughout the police force shows that the cost of the search of Sela is an estimated NIS 100,000 and not millions of shekels, as previously believed. This means that the police force is capable of executing these searches for a long duration of time without it harming the force's budget or operational abilities.
Only one to notice Sela's break for freedom was fellow prisoner
The police's reenactment yesterday of serial rapist Benny Sela's escape exposed a series of failings.
It transpired that Sela had been left unsupervised while the policeman escorting him went to bring his personal file from the police van; the police had only one pair of cuffs, and therefore bound only Sela's hands, while the prisoner with him was not cuffed at all.
A week after Sela's escape, the police have no clue as to his whereabouts. The police continue to receive dozens of calls reporting sightings of men resembling Sela. The police are now concentrating on intelligence tips and covert activity, while continuing to comb Ichilov Hospital near the Tel Aviv courthouse from which Sela escaped and other places.
At 11 A.M. yesterday the members of the inquiry panel watched the reenactment with the two policemen from whom Sela escaped, Haim Tiran and Isak Boutrashvilli. They have been relieved of their duties for the time being. A Yasam commando policeman played Sela's role.
Just before 9 A.M. last week the two escort policemen arrived in a prisoners' van with Sela and another prisoner, Dimitri, who is imprisoned for fraud. Immediately after the escape the police said Dimitri's hands and feet had been bound to prevent him from hurting himself, but in the absence of additional cuffs, they only cuffed Sela's hands. In the reenactment it transpired that Sela had been put into the van with his hands bound, while Dimitri had not been bound at all.
The van was parked in the detention yard diagonally to the courthouse. Boutrashvilli said: "I got off the van, and Tiran opened the locked cell door. Sela came out first, his hands bound, holding a large file. He wore a white T-shirt, brown prisoner's pants and sports shoes. He stood near the truck and waited for us to bring Dimitri, who was uncuffed. On the truck's steps we bound his feet."
When a committee member asked him if he had locked Sela's cuffs, Boutrashvilli replied that he had not.
Leaving the van's door open, the police led the two prisoners toward the courthouse cell to await their hearing. They had to go round the side of the van to the building's entrance. At some point Sela told Tiran he had forgotten a file of documents in the vehicle. Boutrashvilli remained at the courthouse's entrance with Dimitri, while Tiran went back for Sela's file. Sela followed him and stopped mid-way.
"On the way to the van, I greeted the guard at the entrance," Tiran said. "Then I got in the van, found the file and got out again."
When Tiran entered the van, neither police escort was watching Sela, who stood in the middle of the yard. From this point the committee learned of the goings on from Niv Hai, a prisoner convicted in the Trojan horse affair, who was the only one who saw Sela escape.
Hai said he suddenly saw Sela sprint to the gate next to the wall, scale it, vault the metal roof above it and jump to the other side. The officer playing Sela scaled the wall with his hands bound.
"Can you jump over the wall?" Yaron shouted to him. "I can easily do so," the officer replied.
When the Hai saw Sela make a run for it, he shouted to the guard at the gate: "He's
escaping!" At this point Tiran returned from the van. Neither he nor Boutrashvilli saw Sela sprint for the wall.
The guard opened the gate. "I ran to the gate, opened it and began running toward Weizman Street," he said yesterday. He did not know whom he was chasing and caught some passerby by mistake. The two police escorts waited for the gate to open before giving chase.
The lawyer for Boutrashvilli and Tiran said yesterday that "the affair will not stop here. It will go higher."
Tel Aviv District Commander David Zur is to testify before the committee today.