Last update - 01:28 10/12/2006
Serial rapist Benny Sela caught near Nahariya after two weeks on the run
By Roni Singer-Heruti
Serial rapist Benny Sela was captured in Nahariya around 8 P.M. Friday after two weeks on the lam. In the late night hours, Sela sat silently in the Tel Aviv District police station. He occasionally complained he was cold, but otherwise kept his eyes downcast and didn't answer investigators' questions.
Central unit officers had awaited this moment with bated breath. For the past two weeks, few talked of anything in the Tel Aviv station house other than the moment Sela's recapture would be announced, ending the embarrassing affair. Sela escaped police custody at the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court. No hearing was actually scheduled for that day, and Sela had been escorted from prison due to a series of bureaucratic errors.
Central unit officers admitted yesterday that the interrogation had little significance, as there is no doubt regarding the principal charge, flight from legal custody; "however, clearly our personal curiosity was high, and we certainly wanted answers to the questions that interested us first and foremost concerning where Sela was over the past two weeks," commander Lior Schiesser told Haaretz yesterday.
But Sela refused to satisfy investigators' curiosity or that of the public at large, which has been following the story closely. He refused to say where he was hiding until his capture.
At the beginning of the search two weeks ago, police reiterated their assumption that Sela had not left the Tel Aviv jurisdiction. "We repeated that because this is the city he grew up in, and it has the highest concentration of people he knows. Since this is his natural habitat, we figured he would want to stay here," Schiesser explained.
However, as Sharon-area citizens reported more and more possible sightings of Sela, the police began to believe he was hiding out there. "We received two particularly credible tips during the two weeks. The first was the Tel Aviv eyewitness who saw him remove his prison-issue pants two hours after the getaway, and the second was an Ein Sarid resident who knew Sela, and who reported seeing him," the officer explained.
As a result, hundreds of officers combed the Sharon region. The police do not know where Sela hid in the interim, but they do know he broke into a Pardes Hannah home on Thursday and stole a Honda that he used for his drive north.
From the moment Sela escaped, a special central unit investigation team began scouring his 1998 arrest file and going through the names of family members and acquaintances. The officers contacted anyone who may have been in contact with Sela, as well as prisoners and guards who may have had contact with him. The phones of his family and close friends were tapped.
As part of that effort, investigators searched the home of distant relatives in the northern city of Nesher. Before leaving, the officers gave the relatives a phone number to call should they hear from Sela. It was these relatives who told police on Friday that Sela had arrived for a surprise visit.
When searching Sela's cell, investigators found a great deal of documentation. Most information came from journals kept by Sela, considered to be an obsessive diarist. "We didn't find a hint in the journals of where he planned to run to or even that he planned to run," Schiesser said. But they did find two maps in the cell, one of Tiberias on which streets and sages' tombs were marked. "We have no idea for what he prepared the maps, but we have not found any connection to his escape."
On Friday morning, reports from the north indicated that the pursuit was "heating up" and the police may be closing in on the fugitive. Tel Aviv district police chief David Tzur was in constant contact with the northern district chief and central unit officers assigned to northern Israel to follow developments closely. "On the way, we received the report that he had apparently been detained. It was a great feeling. After two sleepless weeks we felt very good," Schiesser said.
Early Saturday morning, Sela was transferred to Rimonim prison where he was placed in solitary confinement. The police decided there is no need to remand him on the new charges, so an indictment will be drafted in the coming weeks while Sela continues to serve his 35-year sentence for 14 rapes and sexual assaults committed in the late 1990s.