Sister and father of attacker released, police unhappy

A court has ordered the release of Shaida al-Qunbar and Ahmad al-Qunbar, the sister and father of Jerusalem truck attacker Fadi al-Qunbar, ruling there is not sufficient evidence to keep the two in custody, and released them under restrictive conditions.

Police are shocked at Shaida al-Qunbar’s release, Ynet news reports, claiming that they had not yet had time to collect evidence. Shaida was accused of incitement when she spoke to a journalist immediately after the terror attack, telling him that she was happy her brother became a martyr.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan calls the move “an extremely bad decision of the court,”

“It is simply unbelievable that the court does not see incitement and support for the awful terror attack in [what she said]. This entire wave of terror is based on the support for murder and terror and praise of murderers. It is sad that judges do not understand this and harm the struggle [against terror],” he writes on Twitter.

The remand of five other suspects — brothers Hamza (31), Muhammed (30) and Mahmoud (28) al-Qunbar, and two residents of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, where al-Qunbar lived — is extended for a further seven days on suspicion that they knew in advance about Qunbar’s plan to carry out the attack and did nothing to prevent it.