Accused in gay youth club murders sent to house arrest

The primary suspect in a deadly shooting spree at a gay youth club in Tel Aviv that left two dead and 11 injured in 2009 was released to house arrest Wednesday, despite having confessed, after spending eight months in jail pending murder charges.

Hagai Felician was indicted in July 2013 for murder and attempted murder in what the prosecution said was a hate crime.

This week, the Tel Aviv District Court extended the remand of the state’s witness against him, who was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of obstruction of justice and fabricating evidence relating to Felician.

“Today’s a day of celebration for us,” Felician’s brother Moti said on Hagai’s release. “Write down the date, we will mark it year after year.”

“I believe the state’s witness is the one who sent the murderer, and he knows exactly who the murderer is,” Moti Felician continued. “He caught an innocent victim and proof of that is that in the end they didn’t believe him in the investigation.”

Felician had confessed carrying out the attack to an undercover officer planted in his jail cell, after the state’s witness had turned him in. According to the indictment, Felician also told the officer he had carried out the shooting “because of the biblical edict to attack homosexuals.”

“You have everything on me, you can give yourself a pat on the back,” Felician reportedly told investigators after he realized he had spilled the beans.

Police also have recordings of Felician saying, “We did it smoothly, no one found out, it was quiet for four years.”

Felician told the state’s witness that he had carried out the attack on Bar Noar because his 15-year-old relative was sexually assaulted by a well-known LGBT activist.

The investigation into the attack was the most expensive in the history of the Israel Police, with authorities questioning over 1,000 people.

According to the indictment, on August 1, 2009, Felician, his face hidden by a mask, entered the Bar Noar on Tel Aviv’s Nahmani street with the intention of shooting activist Shaul Ganon and anyone else inside out of “hatred for their sexual preferences.”