Driver denies trying to run over anti-government protesters in Beersheba

A man arrested for apparently trying to run over a group of students holding an anti-government protest in Beersheba denies trying to harm them.

The suspect, a 26-year-old man from the religious city of Elad, was arrested for “endangering a protest group” in Beersheba and brought in for questioning, police said yesterday.

“My client is fully cooperating with the police. He completely denies that he hit a certain person with the vehicle or that he had the intention to do so — the vehicle was stopped in front of the demonstrators,” the man’s lawyer says after a hearing in which his remand was extended by five days.

The Kan public broadcaster reports that this is the second time the man has been accused of similar crimes, but the first incident occurred when he was a minor.