One of the suspects in a double murder that took place in the Jerusalem area more than 30 years ago confessed Wednesday to murdering an ultra-Orthodox teenager, the man’s lawyers told the Jerusalem Magistrates Court on Wednesday.
In a hearing to extend the suspect’s detention, his attorneys said their client confessed after he was brought face-to-face with convicted Haredi sect leader Rabbi Eliezer Berland, who instructed the suspect to cooperate with investigators and confess to the murder.
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The suspect told investigators that the motive for the murder was a romantic relationship between the victim, Nissim Shitrit, and the wife of one of the other suspects, though he claimed that he didn’t mean to kill the Shitrit.
One of the suspects outside the courthouse, in October.Ohad Zwigenberg
After confessing, the suspect was taken by investigators to several locations in Jerusalem in an attempt to locate the victim’s remains, but he could not point to a precise location. Investigators said that the suspect incriminated the others in this affair.
A police representative told the court that investigators know who the accomplices to the kidnapping are and who committed Shitrit’s murder. He added that other clues implicated the murderer besides the suspect’s confession, and that the police believe that the murder occurred on February 2, 1986 – three days before the victim was reported missing.
The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court extended the custody of three of the suspects involved in the affair by eight days. A female suspect who has confessed to being used by Berland as bait in the affair was released but confined to her home.
Rabbi Eliezer Berland in court in Jerusalem, this week.Ohad Zwigenberg
The three suspects all once belonged to the Shuvu Banim cult headed by Berland, who is suspected himself of being involved in the two murders. All told, seven people are being held, including Berland.
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The murders of Shitrit and Avraham Edri in 1986 and 1990, respectively, were never solved. However, arrests were made last month following an investigative report by public broadcaster Kan television. It attributed the murders to the victims’ romantic relationships, which displeased the Berland sect’s “modesty guard.”
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