State suing Israeli accused of staging own ‘kidnapping’

Niv Asraf, an Israeli suspected of staging his own disappearance in the West Bank, setting into motion a massive house-to-house manhunt, is being sued by the state for a sum of NIS 625,000 (about $160,460).

Asraf along with his accomplice Eran Nagaoker, was indicted in June for submitting false information to the police.

Asraf’s April 2 disappearance near the area of the West Bank where three Israeli teenagers were abducted and killed a year ago sent hundreds of soldiers, police and agents of the Shin Bet security agency searching for him in villages surrounding the Palestinian city of Hebron.

Niv Asraf (C) and his friend Eran Negauker (L), 22-year-olds from Beersheba, are seen at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court for remand extension on April 3, 2015, a morning after Asraf was found in Kiryat Arba after being falsely reported as missing (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Hours later, after a search that police say cost the state millions of shekels, Asraf was found safe and sound in a nearby valley with a sleeping bag and some canned food.