4 suspects in mob attack on Eritrean man freed on bail

Men charged with aggravated assault in death of Haftom Zarhum in the aftermath of a terror attack in Beersheba

By ToI Staff 22 October 2015, 5:26 pm

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Haftom Zarhum, 29, died of his wounds on October 19, 2015, a few hours after he was shot and beaten by a mob that mistook him for an assailant in the terror attack in Beersheba on October 18, 2015. (Courtesy)

Four Israelis implicated in the brutal mob beating of an Eritrean man mistaken for a terrorist were granted conditional release by the Beersheba Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.

The four were arrested Wednesday and charged with aggravated assault for their involvement in the attack on 29-year-old Haftom Zarhum on Sunday. Zarhum died in the hospital shortly after he was shot by security personnel, who say they suspected that he was a terrorist, and beaten in the immediate aftermath of a terror attack in the Beersheba central bus station.

The four were released on bail and have been banned from making contact with one another, Israel Radio reported.

Two of the men arrested by police were Israel Prison Service officers, Channel 2 reported. The four were charged with aggravated assault for their involvement in the brutal beating of Zarhum, who was already sprawled on the floor of the bus station with a bullet wound to the torso.

The head of the Israel Prison Service condemned the actions of its employees, saying that “violence contradicts the values of the organization.”

A clip filmed by a passerby showed the four repeatedly kicking Zarhum in the head. One of them was also seen hurling a bench at him.

At least two others suspected in what the police, Israeli politicians and the press called a “lynching” were IDF soldiers. The IDF said Monday that the military police was taking part in the investigation of the incident.

A forensic examination of Zarhum’s body concluded Wednesday that the cause of his death was the gunshot wounds he sustained and not the severe beating. Police had waited for the results of the autopsy before deciding what charges to file against the suspects.

One IDF soldier, Omri Levy, died and 11 other people were injured in the stabbing and shooting attack at the southern city’s crowded central bus station Sunday. Police named the terrorist as 21-year-old Muhanad Alukabi from near the Bedouin town of Hura, just east of Beersheba.

The attack on Zarhum met with widespread outrage, with the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reporting that he was shot “only because of the color of his skin.”