Man suspected of seeking rabbi’s approval to kill AG to go free on Friday, judge rules

A man suspected of making threats against the life of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara will remain in detention for an extra day, police announced Thursday, after a judge rejected law enforcement’s request to keep him locked up for another week.

The suspect, a 36-year-old resident of Jerusalem whose name is barred from publication, allegedly sent a letter on Wednesday to former chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef requesting permission to kill the attorney general, a largely unpopular figure among Israel’s right-wing and ultra-Orthodox populations.

He is suspected of asking Yosef to issue a din rodef against Baharav-Miara — a religious decree applied to grave offenders thought to be an imminent and lethal danger to others. In Jewish law, one is permitted to stop a rodef by any means, even if this requires killing them.

The label became infamous in Israeli political history after Yigal Amir, the assassin of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, cited it as a religious justification for the murder in November 1995. The term has no standing in Israeli law.

“The erev rav desecrate the name of the heavens with their actions against the Torah world, I am ready to kill the attorney general if I receive approval for such from the three elders of the generation. Without approval I will not do it,” the suspect’s letter read, according to the Ynet news site, using a term referring to non-Israelites who joined the biblical Exodus from Egypt.

Police arrested the suspect at his home hours after the letter was reported and brought him to the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court the next day, seeking to keep him in custody for an additional week.

“The suspect came to the home of Rabbi Yosef and asked to speak with him. When he was turned away, he handed over a letter in which he expressed the desire to kill the attorney general,” the police representative said during the hearing, per Ynet. “The writing is on the wall.”

He added that police seized computers and cellphones from the suspect’s home and were trying to figure out whether additional individuals were involved.

But Judge Miriam Charka pared down law enforcement’s initial request, ordering the suspect to remain in detention until 10 a.m. Friday morning, before being released.

The detainee’s lawyer forcefully argued his client’s case during the hearing, claiming he had no intent to murder the legal official since he never received Yosef’s permission to do so.

He requested the judge release his client to house arrest, citing his history of mental health and insisting that there was no tangible threat against the legal official’s life.

“Even if this is an act that is loathsome on a moral and ethical level, we are still within the realm of criminal law,” said attorney Idan Butbul. “He contacted the rabbi via a sealed envelope and not with direct intent, and asked him a question. Under these circumstances, the act does not amount to a criminal threat.”

Charka suggested the suspect could have intended to intimidate Baharav-Miara with his letter. “The suspect didn’t go to an obscure rabbi. It’s possible he intended to intimidate the attorney general,” she said.

Baharav-Miara has been regularly denounced by members of the current government, which voted earlier this month to fire her from her post, though the High Court of Justice immediately froze the move as it reviews whether the dismissal process passed legal muster.

She has also infuriated ultra-Orthodox leaders by increasing pressure on Haredi draft dodgers, requiring the military to send thousands of enlistment orders to yeshiva students, and pushing for the arrests of those who don’t comply.