Man arrested for threatening Likud MK Oren Hazan
Tel Aviv resident suspected of posting threats against bad-boy Likud lawmaker on Facebook
Police said Wednesday they had arrested a man on suspicion that he had made threats against a member of the Knesset, apparently Likud lawmaker Oren Hazan.
“The suspect, a man aged 41, was arrested last night after using social media as a platform and writing threats against an MK on Facebook,” police said in a statement.
According to police, a complaint about the incident was filed two weeks ago, and an investigation launched to track down the culprit, who is a resident of Tel Aviv.
During the arrest, a search was carried out in the suspect’s home and his computer and phone were seized, the statement said.
The suspect remains under arrest and was to be arraigned in court later on Wednesday.
Last month, prosecutors charged a man from central Israel with incitement to violence and racism over Facebook posts three years ago that called for an Arab Holocaust and burning Arab people alive.
Multiple Palestinians and Arab Israelis have been imprisoned for social media posts deemed threats to Jewish Israelis.
Hazan has become known as the enfant terrible of Israel’s parliament.
On Tuesday, the attorney general’s office said it had decided to indict Hazan for an assault case dating back some three years, prior to his election to the Knesset.
He is suspected of assaulting the mayor of Ariel in the West Bank in 2014, in an apparent dispute over a debt.
In December 2016, he had his driver’s license suspended for traveling at a speed of over 140 kilometers per hour (over 87 mph) on Route 90, where the limit is 90 kilometers per hour (56 mph).
In October, a Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court judge said Hazan had used hard drugs while serving as a casino manager in Bulgaria before being elected to the Knesset, rejecting the bulk of a libel lawsuit brought by Hazan against a reporter from Channel 2 news.
Judge Azaria Alcalay ruled that a June 2015 investigative report claiming Hazan had hired prostitutes for his friends and used hard drugs while managing a Burgas casino in 2013 amounted to “responsible, serious journalism and reflected the reality as it was.”
Hazan had sought NIS 1 million (some $260,000) in damages from Channel 2 reporter Amit Segal, claiming the allegations were false and constituted libel.
