Rejecting police appeal, court orders unconditional release of last detainee in alleged Ra’am vote-buying case

The Beersheba Magistrate’s Court orders the unconditional release of Ibrahim al-Garibi, the last suspect still in custody after police arrested three southern Bedouin men at dawn on election day for allegedly planning to buy votes for traditionalist Arab-led party Ra’am.

The court ordered Garibi’s release on Sunday, but the Beersheba District Court on Monday accepted police’s appeal and extended his remand until today.

Police petitioned the Magistrate’s Court today to place Garibi under house arrest and bar him from using the internet, but Judge Eran Tzabari rejects the motion and criticizes investigators.

“The investigating unit has made no progress in the case, nor have I heard of any actual efforts to check the defendant’s own claim,” Tzabari says in his decision. “I see no sense in leaving the defendant under house arrest.”

Another of the men arrested on election day, Hussein al-Masoudin, was released yesterday after the end of the two-day remand extension that Tzabari approved for him on Sunday. Police did not appeal the release.

Tzabari on Sunday also ordered the unconditional release of the third man, Saef Abu Reash. Police did not appeal that release either.

Police said early on election day that they found envelopes containing tens of thousands of shekels in cash in the suspects’ homes.

However, Abu Reash’s lawyer has said no money was found in his client’s home and that a total of NIS 12,000 ($3,800) was found in the homes of the other suspects, who claimed it was earmarked for charity.

Police have also admitted in court that they searched the men’s homes without a warrant.

Hebrew media has reported the searches and arrests were based on information called in to top police brass by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff Ido Norden.

Netanyahu himself claimed in an election day video statement that the allegations against the “three senior Ra’am moneymen” reflected an attempt “to steal the election from us.”