2 Men Remanded After Woman Suffers Drug Poisoning at TA Nightclub

Two men have been remanded until Wednesday on suspicion that they gave drugs to a Rishon Letzion woman at a Tel Aviv club over the weekend. Moshit Fisher, 23, is hospitalized in serious condition with drug poisoning.

The men, Hod Zechut and Rafael Michaeli, both in their 40s, have previous drug convictions, but deny giving Fisher any drugs. They claim they took care of her and brought her to the hospital. Police said Fisher’s condition was still life-threatening.

During yesterday’s hearing at Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court, it emerged that Zechut was Fisher’s boyfriend. According to police, Zechut and Fisher had used drugs together a year ago in Amsterdam and Zechut knew that she was liable to have an extreme reaction to drugs.

“We know that she’d had an incident abroad when she was with [Zechut],” the police representative said at the hearing.

Michaeli’s attorney said that during the evening at The Block club in south Tel Aviv, Fisher “took a pill, and what happened is what happened to her a year ago in Amsterdam.”

“This is a serious incident,” Judge Ronit Poznanski-Katz wrote in her ruling. “The allegations against this suspect, as against the other suspect involved in the incident, is that they gave drugs to the victim and as a result she ended up in her current medical state. A review of the investigation file shows there is a reasonable suspicion that crimes were committed.”

Fisher was brought to the Ichilov Hospital emergency room in Tel Aviv early Saturday morning after feeling ill. Her condition worsened after she was admitted, but yesterday there was a mild improvement. Her blood work showed clear traces of drugs.

Dr. Esther Dahan, acting director of the hospital’s intensive care unit, said the intensity of the poisoning did not match what the hospital usually sees in similar cases when traces of this drug are found in the victim’s blood.

The drug in question is said to be MDMA, which, unlike popular “kiosk” drugs, is readily identifiable. It is the main component of Ecstasy pills, to which other materials are sometimes added. In its pure form, it’s a crystal that is taken orally, sometimes mixed into a drink. It affects the dopamine and serotonin systems of the brain and creates a feeling of euphoria.