Jerusalem man indicted after asking rabbi for permission to kill the attorney general

Police prosecutors filed charges this morning against a man accused of making threats against the life of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, law enforcement announces.

The defendant, a 36-year-old resident of Jerusalem, was arrested on Wednesday evening after he allegedly sent a letter to the former Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef seeking his permission to kill the attorney general.

He is indicted on the charge of making threats against the legal official, law enforcement officials announce.

The defendant was formerly scheduled to go free this morning on a judge’s order, after police in court struggled to refute arguments made by the suspect’s lawyer. But police say they brought him again to court after “sufficient evidence was gathered against him” and managed to extend his detention another two days.

The defendant is set to remain in police custody until Sunday, August 24.

He is suspected of asking Yosef to issue a ‘din rodef’ against Baharav-Miara — a religious decree applied to grave offenders thought to be an imminent and lethal danger to others. In Jewish law, one is permitted to stop a rodef by any means, even if this requires killing them. The term has no standing in Israeli law.