Subscribe to Print Edition | Tue., August 05, 2008 Av 4, 5768 | | Israel Time: 02:11 (EST+7) web haaretz.com   Back to Homepage Rosner's Domain Diplomacy Defense Jewish World Opinion National Print Edition Car Rental Books Haaretz Magazine Business Real Estate Easy Start Travel Week's End Anglo File

Suspects freed due to their religion By Jack Khoury Does a defendant's ethnicity affect whether he should be released from custody? Yes, according to a recent decision by Acre Magistrate's Court Judge Ziad Salih, who released three men suspected of kidnapping a woman at her ex-husband's behest because he said that as a Druze, he does not think religious Druze constitute a threat. The police appealed the verdict, which was overturned by the Haifa District Court. Advertisement "With all due respect, I disagree with the conclusion above," wrote the District Court judge, Ilan Shiff. "Just as it's clear that one cannot draw from my ruling any conclusion regarding the Druze ethnic group or the religious public within that ethnic group, so, too, one cannot draw a conclusion by looking at the general religious public in the Druze ethnic group about whether or not the defendants pose a danger. The defendants are sentenced individually, based on their actions and the circumstances, and not based on the characteristics of the ethnic group to which they belong." The defendants appealed the Supreme Court to overturn the District Court decision to place them in custody. The three defendants are accused of helping a fourth defendant, all from the same Druze town in the western Galilee, abduct his ex-wife. The man decided a few months after the divorce that he wanted her back, but she refused because Druze law forbids a woman to return to a man who has divorced her. Police suspect the four defendants of abducting the woman from her workplace and holding her overnight, after which she was returned to her parents' home. All four claim the woman got into the car of her own volition. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Shin Bet exploitation Is spying for Israel a fair swap for receiving medical treatment? A French feud French satirist denies making anti-Semitic remarks towards President Sarkozy's son.

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