Shai Avital, a modeling agent arrested in The Netherlands and extradited to Israel last year to face sexual assault accusations has been released to house arrest.
Avital will wear an electronic monitor and be confined to his Ashkelon home, a judge rules, rejecting a police request to keep him in custody. He is also ordered to post NIS 1.35 million ($380,000) bail.
Avital, who denies any wrongdoing, left Israel in 2021, shortly before media reports about a slew of accusations began to surface against him. After refusing to show up for court for over a year, he was captured in Amsterdam last year and brought to Israel after dropping his objections to extradition.
He faces charges stemming from complaints from two women who say he forced himself onto them while running the Elite Modeling Agency, including one who was a minor at the time.
No charges have been filed related to complaints from 24 other women who claim Avital harassed or assaulted them.
It's not (only) about you.
Supporting The Times of Israel isn’t a transaction for an online service, like subscribing to Netflix. The ToI Community is for people like you who care about a common good: ensuring that balanced, responsible coverage of Israel continues to be available to millions across the world, for free.
Sure, we'll remove all ads from your page and you'll unlock access to some excellent Community-only content. But your support gives you something more profound than that: the pride of joining something that really matters.
Join the Times of Israel Community
Join our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
You're a dedicated reader
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Join Our Community
Join Our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
From the Liveblog of
Monday, March 6, 2023
