Deri confidant remanded over alleged blackmail of Shas official
Police believe four men behind plot to oust Jerusalem council member who admitted to not observing Shabbat, ‘wild’ sexual behavior
A close ally of Shas chairman Aryeh Deri and three other people were remanded in custody on Tuesday over suspicions they blackmailed a member of the ultra-Orthodox party who abruptly resigned from the Jerusalem city council last year.
Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court ordered that Deri confidant Yosef Chaim Klaf be kept in police custody until Friday, according to Israeli media reports. The three other suspects detained in connection were identified as Moshe Bergman, a journalist for the Behadrey Haredim website; a second, unnamed journalist; and an unnamed yeshiva student, according to the Hebrew-language Haaretz daily.
Police said at the hearing that Klaf told investigators he was a central figure in what he termed “Deri’s gang.”
Klaf, the principal of a Jerusalem yeshiva, was suspected of making contact with the unnamed council member while pretending to be a woman.
According to reports, the council member admitted in text messages to the “woman” that he was in engaged in behavior considered inappropriate by the religious community, such as desecrating Shabbat and engaging in “wild” sexual behavior.
The suspects then threatened to release the information unless the Shas council member resigned from the city council. He stepped down in September, saying he was overworked and couldn’t keep up the pace.
After he tendered his resignation, the councilman reported the incident to police as extortion, saying he was targeted by fellow Shas members after he worked to stop municipal funding for a number of party events in Jerusalem.
Police are reportedly in possession of incriminating cellphone records connecting the four suspects to phone calls made to the council member.
The affair is the second police investigation into Shas officials suspected of corruption and bribery launched by police in recent months.
In December, former Shas MK Amnon Cohen was arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes from a businessman, including sexual favors arranged by him, in return for advancing his business interests in parliament. Cohen was released several days later after posting bail and the investigation into the alleged bribe-taking remains open.
The Times of Israel Community.