Court keeps suspect in custody in attempted kidnapping case as police probe possible link to missing girl

A Rishon Lezion judge has ordered the man suspected of trying to kidnap a young Ethiopian girl in the southern city to detention for six more days, as police investigate the matter.

A gag order has been imposed on the case. Hebrew outlets reported last night that law enforcement believes the suspect is linked to the disappearance of Haymanut Kasau, an Ethiopian girl who went missing at the age of nine from a Safed absorption center in February last year.

Kasau’s father, Tesfai, told Haaretz yesterday that both the suspect currently in custody and his would-be victim had lived in Safed at the time Haymanut went missing.

The father caught word of the Beersheba kidnapping attempt from an acquaintance, and he informed the Hebrew daily. When he reached out to police, he was told that there were no new developments in his missing daughter’s case.

Meanwhile, police announced last night that Chief Commissioner Danny Levy transferred Kasau’s case to the Lahav 433 major crimes unit.

A source in the unit tells Haaretz that the decision was made the previous week, and has no relation to the Beersheba kidnapping attempt. Nevertheless, detectives in Lahav 433 are investigating both cases at the moment.

On Monday this week, the suspect allegedly knocked on the girl’s door and sat on the couch. He then touched, hugged and grabbed her hand. Before he could continue, the girl opened the door and screamed, alerting neighbors who called the police, she told the outlet.

She further divulged that she knew the man from Safed. “He is a friend of my father’s, who today is in Ethiopia. He was with us, he was nice, everyone knows him. This is the first time he has tried to take me by force like that,” she said.