Suspect in alleged Ra’am bribery scheme freed from house arrest, another kept in jail

One of four men detained on Thursday over a suspected vote-buying scheme for the Arab-led party Ra’am was released from house arrest, as allegations of election interference continued to cause fallout nearly a week after Tuesday’s election.

Another suspect in the case, arrested on election day, had his remand extended.

There are seven suspects in the case: three arrested on Tuesday — election day — and four more detained on Thursday. The investigation surrounds allegations that the suspects held envelopes of cash and Ra’am ballots and planned to pay people to vote for the party.

Two of those arrested on election day were released from jail, one of them to house arrest. The third is still being held.

The Beersheba Magistrate’s Court had released all four suspects detained on Thursday to house arrest the day they were detained. Now, three remain under house arrest, while the fourth, Sa’id Abu Sa’ad, was freed from restrictive conditions following an appeal from his attorney.

The court decisions came as officials confirmed to the public that the election results are valid despite the Ra’am allegations and a separate probe into foreign election interference, reportedly by Qatar. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has seized on those allegations to cast doubt on the election results, which saw his coalition lose its majority.

But officials have stressed that the probes are limited in scope. On Sunday, the chair of the Central Elections Committee, Justice Noam Sohlberg, reiterated in a video message that the election was “conducted properly,” in a bid to quell the claims of widespread voter fraud. Sohlberg appeared in the video alongside Shin Bet chief David Zini, CEC acting director-general Dean Livne, and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, with the four presenting a united front against the claims.

Despite that, Netanyahu’s Likud party put out a statement arguing that it was “highly perplexing” that Sohlberg would describe allegations of foreign interference as “very serious,” and yet “preemptively determine that they had no impact on the election result,” before an investigation had been completed. The party claimed the allegations cast a “dark cloud over the election results.”

Suspect has remand extended for two days

On Monday, the Beersheba District Court extended the remand of one of the three suspects arrested on election day, Ibrahim al-Garibi, until Wednesday, accepting a police appeal against Sunday’s lower court decision to release him to house arrest.

Citing a confidential dossier submitted by police, District Court judge Dina Cohen let police keep Garibi in custody for two more days to complete specific probes that police said were “corruptible” if Garibi were released.

The “dynamic” nature of the investigation justifies “extending the remand for investigative purposes, after the reasonable suspicion was sufficiently established even at this stage,” Cohen ruled after hearing police’s appeal of the Beersheba Magistrate’s Court decision.

The Magistrate’s Court on Sunday had rejected police’s motion for an eight-day extension of Garibi’s remand, saying the suspicions against him had weakened and that investigators had failed to disprove Garibi’s explanation for the cash that police found in a warrantless search of his home.

The Magistrate’s Court ordered Garibi be released to house arrest, but had delayed implementation until noon Monday to give police time to appeal.

Lawyer says suspect was arrested even though warrantless search of home found no cash

The attorney for another suspect arrested on election day, Saef Abu Raesh, said his client was taken into custody even though the warrantless police search of his home had yielded no cash.

Attorney Ali Abu Laban made the comments a day after the Beersheba Magistrate’s Court unconditionally ended Abu Raesh’s detention.

Speaking to Army Radio, Abu Laban said the total sum of cash found in the two other suspects’ homes was NIS 12,000 ($3,830). The suspects have said the money was earmarked for charitable purposes.

The suspects’ homes were searched without a warrant, based on information that Netanyahu’s chief of staff, Ido Norden, had called in hours earlier to police top brass, according to Hebrew media reports.

Netanyahu in a video statement on that day said the allegations against what he described as the “three senior Ra’am money men” reflected an attempt “to steal the election from us.”

Contrary to Netanyahu’s claim, Abu Laban told Army Radio on Monday that Abu Raesh, a doctor who runs a small clinic in Rahat, is not a Ra’am activist, but had instead advocated in the southern Bedouin town for people to go to the polls to change “the very difficult reality in Arab society.”

Abu Laban also challenged the court’s initial decision to extend his client’s remand until Sunday despite “no money and no envelopes” being found in Abu Raesh’s home.

“It’s not enough for police to act as though it’s political… the most important thing is that the court prevents it,” he said.

Suspect: Officers made me feel ‘degraded’ and ‘humiliated’

Speaking to Channel 12 on Sunday night, one of the suspects described the moment Border Police officers entered his home, saying the experience was humiliating.

“I’m still in shock, like I have yet to wake up,” the unnamed suspect said through a voice-altering filter, saying he was detained in front of his children.

“I felt degraded,” he added. “Believe me, it’s a situation I wouldn’t wish on anyone.”

The man said Border Police entered his home at 4 a.m. on Tuesday, slamming his door. He said he told them they had the wrong guy, but that the officers confirmed they meant to arrest him, citing his national identification number.

“They came to the house, conducted a search, made a mess, even conducted a humiliating search,” he said.

He added that a young officer said to him, “You kicked out [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben Gvir? Are you happy now?” The man said he did not answer.

“They took me, cuffed and degraded, to Lahav,” the major crimes unit, which is handling the case, the man said.

He insisted that the allegations were “one big delusion,” pushing back against claims of significant fraud.

“People went out to vote in a country of laws,” he said. Noting the high turnout among Arab citizens, he said, “It’s true that they don’t usually vote in these numbers, but after what we’ve experienced… in the past four years, everyone turned out.”

He said the fraud allegations, reported to have originated with Norden, the Netanyahu aide, “will just push Arabs away from being loyal to the country.”

Suspect said to claim envelopes of cash were for charity

The Channel 12 report also included a transcript of the interrogation of one of the suspects, in which he confirmed voting for Ra’am and said the envelopes of cash found in his home were meant for charity.

“These are used for charity, charity from the mosque,” the suspect said, according to the transcript. “We don’t write names on the envelopes. They belong to the Islamic Movement and are given in secret.”

The interrogator then noted the historic ties between the Islamic Movement, a religious association, and the Ra’am party, to which the suspect replied, “There’s no connection between the two.”

When asked why the suspect also possessed Ra’am ballots, he claimed that he used them to show people how to vote for the party. After he was accused of trying to buy votes, he denied the allegation.

A police source told the network that the force is obligated to investigate suspicions of criminal wrongdoing, and that “we have no reason to hold a detainee one minute longer than necessary.”