DNA places Tel Aviv rape suspect at the crime scene

Police said Wednesday that DNA samples found at the scene of a rape last weekend at a parking lot in central Tel Aviv tested positive as a match for the suspect in custody.

The suspect, who was arrested on Monday night, stands accused of forcing a young couple at knife-point to have sex while he watched and then raping the girl himself in the bathroom of the Gan Ha’Ir parking lot in the early hours of Saturday morning. He claimed he only robbed them.

“I stole their cellphones, but I didn’t rape anyone,” the 21-year-old Palestinian man told Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court.

The suspect was arrested at a restaurant on Ibn Gabirol Street, close to the scene of the crime. Four others were also held, apparently on suspicion of interfering with the police investigation into the attack.

A police lineup was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, during which the assaulted couple was to be asked to identify the suspect, but it was canceled because the DNA match rendered it unnecessary, police said.

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The suspect, who is from a village near the West Bank town of Nablus, has been living and working in Tel Aviv illegally.