Suspect in killing of Arab parkgoer to remain in custody, Jerusalem judge rules

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday extended the remand of a Jewish man suspected of killing an Arab parkgoer with his car in an act the victim’s relatives have claimed was a nationalist murder.

The suspect, whose name and identifying details are under a gag order, will remain in custody until at least Tuesday, as he is investigated for the killing of 32-year-old Fouad Alian, a resident of Jerusalem’s Beit Safafa neighborhood, in a hit-and-run on May 22.

The slain man’s cousin, Bara’a Alian, told Haaretz that the suspect and his friend, both young men in their 20s, first approached and harassed them on May 20, two days prior to Fouad’s death.

The men threatened them and told them to leave the area, Bara’a recounted. He said that he called the police, but that the officers who arrived on the scene only searched him and Fouad without dealing with their tormentors. The two harassers began throwing stones at them after police left the park.

Two days later, the two cousins returned to the park and stumbled upon the same group.

“As soon as we arrived, they recognized us. Someone came with a stick and started threatening us. We left the park, and they started chasing us with a car, trying to catch us,” said Alian.

The cousins climbed onto Fouad’s motorcycle, which he had parked nearby, and rode it on the sidewalk to escape their pursuers. The driver followed suit, running them both over at high speed, Alian said.

Fouad was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, while Bara’a was lightly injured with several fractures.

The two assailants are being investigated on suspicion of premeditated murder and neglect after injury, causing serious injury or death. One of the suspects, who had not been in the driver’s seat, has been released to house arrest.

Meirav Zamir, who is representing the driver in court, told Haaretz that her client was “attacked by two masked individuals who sprayed pepper spray in his eyes.”

She claimed that the two cousins had chased the suspect, who was unable to see the road because of the pepper spray.

At Fouad Alian’s funeral earlier this week, one of his relatives told Ynet that he was “certain this was a nationalist murder” rather than a criminal dispute. “It started with a racist remark, an argument, and then murder.”

A group of Jewish residents of West Jerusalem’s Rassco neighborhood plans to hold a memorial service for the slain man on Friday morning at a shopping center across from the park where he was killed.

“Together we will remember Fouad Alian, whose life was tragically cut short due to horrifying and violent racism,” read a statement sent out by the group.