Informant in Bar Noar case gives TV interview while on the lam

The escaped state’s witness in the criminal case against the perpetrators of a deadly attack on a gay youth club in Tel Aviv managed to give a televised interview on Thursday to Channel 2 while he was on the lam from police protection and the subject of a manhunt.

The witness is believed to have escaped early Thursday from the safe haven apartment that was provided to him by police. His testimony several months ago was key to cracking the case of the 2009 shooting at the Bar Noar youth club in Tel Aviv, which left three dead and 11 injured.

He had turned witness, the man said, “because of conscience, it bothered me [and] I wanted to have closure… Maybe people think I did it for money… I am sorry to disappoint them.”

However, he did not address why he left the safe house and decided to go on the run.

He said he feared for his life since the decision to turn in his acquaintances — who, he said, committed the shooting — and put himself under police protection. “You have pressure from the police, who are waiting for results… and from the guys under suspicion; you are afraid each moment for your life,” he said.

“I am like a dead person,” he said. “I am actually alive, but I am also dead — inside.”

In the broadcast shown Thursday, his face was digitally concealed and he seemed to be in the presence of at least two reporters. It was unclear how the reporters got in contact with the witness, whose exact whereabouts remained unknown.

According to the police, at approximately 2 a.m. Thursday morning the witness told the police officers guarding him at the safe-house apartment that he was going to sleep. His absence was discovered in the morning, and it is believed that he jumped out of the window.

Large police forces were out looking for him as of Thursday afternoon. The witness was believed to be in or around Tel Aviv, where he had been held in protective custody. But guards at all of the country’s border crossings were briefed regarding the situation and instructed to increase their vigilance, Walla news reported.

A senior police official referred to the escape as “an indescribable failure,” according to Ynet.

The witness’s mother told Ynet that she had no sympathy for her son, who in her words “ruined the entire family.” She said she was not in contact with her son and that she didn’t want to see him.

The investigation into the Bar Noar attack has been one of the most expensive in recent history, with authorities questioning over 1,000 people.

Police were finally able to make headway in their investigation four months ago, when the man who would become the state’s witness turned himself in.

The witness told police that he was aware that the suspects intended to harm Shaul Ganon, one of the youth club’s founders, for sexual offenses he had allegedly committed against a minor related to the suspects. The state’s witness maintains that he did not know that they intended to kill Ganon.

On the day of the attack, Ganon wasn’t at the Bar Noar, and the suspects proceeded to shoot other people present.

The witness said he had provided the suspects with the address of the youth club, where he thought their intended victim would be, as well as information for reaching and escaping from the area. The witness was also said to have provided the primary suspect, Haggai Felician, with the black mask that he wore during the attack.

Tel Aviv District Commander Gadi Eshed said earlier this month that the state witness’s motives for helping police were twofold: First, “his criminal associates turned their backs on him; he felt betrayed in the moment of truth. His second motive stemmed from the fact that he himself is a member of the [gay] community… he felt pangs of conscience.”