5 Haredim indicted for breaking into Jerusalem light rail construction site

Five ultra-Orthodox extremists are indicted for trespassing and rioting at a Jerusalem Light Rail construction site, after conducting an illegal sit-in during protests earlier in July against a new planned route for the train.

Elazar Glick, 25; Yitzhak Ze’ev Koifman, 33; Avraham Zvi Lederman, 25; Shimon Shapira, 22 and Bezalel Lederman, 20, residents of Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh, are indicted for “crimes of rioting, trespassing to commit a crime, obstructing a police officer while performing his duty, violating a legal order and prohibited assembly.”

“Prosecutors have asked the court to order the arrest of the accused until the end of legal proceedings against them,” the Justice Ministry says in a statement.

In two separate incidents, prosecutors say the men broke into the light rail construction site on Bar Ilan Street in Jerusalem, sat inside holes dug up as part of the construction work, and refused to move. After a short while, the protesters were removed and arrested after refusing calls by the police to leave on their own.