Duma Firebombing Terrorist To Be Freed

THE FORWARD – Meir Ettinger, the suspected head of a right-wing Jewish terrorist cell who is being held in administrative detention, will be released from jail.

The Lod District Court determined Tuesday that Ettinger would be released in June after the Shin Bet security service said it would not request an extension of his detention. But the Shin Bet also said it would impose restrictions on who Ettinger can come in contact with and what communities he can live in and visit, the Hebrew-language news website Walla reported .

Ettinger, the grandson of the slain far-right extremist Meir Kahane, has been held in administration detention without being charged since August 2015. The detention was extended in February.

Administrative detention allows Israeli authorities to hold suspected terrorists for six months at a time without filing formal charges. The detention, which is generally used against Palestinians, can be renewed indefinitely.

Ettinger, who spent several weeks in solitary confinement and has had limited contact with his family, was arrested for “involvement in violent activities and terrorist attacks that occurred recently, and his role as part of a Jewish terrorist group,” according to Israeli authorities.

His arrest was linked to the firebombing of a home in the West Bank Palestinian village of Duma that left an infant and his parents dead. Three people were convicted in connection with the attack.

Shin Bet officials have said Ettinger heads a movement that also was responsible for the June arson of the historic Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes, and seeks to bring down the government and replace it with a Jewish theocracy.

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FOR A PALESTINIAN POINT OF VIEW: MA’AN NEWS ARTICLE: LINK