Israel Sharabi, a 38-year-old convicted sex offender from Bnei Brak, is accused of breaking into the apartment of a woman who had complained against him and obtained a restraining order, then sexually assaulting her while she slept. The indictment, filed Wednesday in Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court, says the alleged attack happened only days after he was released to an alternative detention arrangement in a Tel Aviv hostel.
According to the charge sheet, Sharabi was already subject to a supervision order under Israel’s law protecting the public from sex offenders, a restraining order banning him from an area of Bnei Brak where the victim lives, and a court decision requiring him to stay at the “Echpat” association hostel in Tel Aviv. About two weeks earlier, he allegedly fled that placement. The next morning at around 5:38 a.m., he allegedly went to the complainant’s building in Bnei Brak, entered the apartment, which was closed but unlocked, and went into her bedroom while she was asleep.
Prosecutors say he removed her blanket and began touching her back over her clothes. She woke up in shock, saw him in her room, asked what he was doing and demanded he leave. He allegedly replied, “What, what happened,” and only fled after she pushed him with the blanket and grabbed a chair. After leaving, he remained in the prohibited area. The victim’s father spotted him nearby and alerted the supervision officer, triggering a chase. When ordered to stop and told, “You are under arrest,” he allegedly answered, “I don’t want to,” and ran through streets and parked cars. He was detained after a search lasting more than an hour.
In his first police interview, Sharabi admitted fleeing the hostel because “I didn’t feel good there” and did not want his father to pay NIS 3,000 for his stay. He also admitted traveling to the area where his father lives, despite knowing he was barred from going there. In later questioning he denied the allegations, saying people hated him because they knew he was a sex offender and adding that he was ill and did what he does to “children and little girls,” while denying he had been looking for any. In a third interview, he said he knew he was forbidden from being near the victim’s home, but “spat on” the authorities and went there anyway. The remand request said he has eight prior convictions, including sex offenses, violating supervision orders, threats, violence and property crimes, and that the alleged acts came soon after he finished a previous prison term.
