Yeshiva student arrested over suspected murder at Mea Shearim seminary

Victim is a man in his 60s, who succumbed to wounds days after assault

By ToI Staff 25 August 2020, 10:14 am 3

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Illustrative: Police squad cars in Zion Square, downtown Jerusalem, September 20, 2017. (Stuart Winer/ Times of Israel)

Police have launched an investigation into a suspected murder at a Jerusalem yeshiva.

The victim, a man in his 60s, succumbed to his wounds at a Jerusalem hospital on Monday night, after he was savagely attacked over the weekend in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim.

The man had been living at the yeshiva.

Police announced Tuesday that a suspect has been arrested. He was identified only as a resident of Mevasseret Zion in his 40s, who was also a student at the yeshiva.

Evidence at the crime scene led them to the suspect, police said.

Police officers close synagogues and disperse public gatherings in Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim as part of efforts to contain the coronavirus, March 31, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

There was no immediate word on the motive for the attack.

When officers arrived at the Mea Shearim neighborhood to investigate the crime scene on Monday, they were attacked by an extremist Haredi faction that routinely scuffles with police officers in the area. Border Police forces were called in to quell the violence. No one was hurt in the altercation.

The yeshiva is a religious seminary for formerly secular Jews who choose to become religiously observant, reports said.