A Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court ruled that a married man from Beitar Illit was wrongfully arrested after his pregnant lover filed a rape complaint against him. The man, identified as S., is in his 40s and a father of children. He was detained on suspicion of rape and using a date-rape drug, but the judge found that the case was not properly checked before the arrest.
According to the report, the woman went to the Lev HaBira station in the Jerusalem District Police and claimed that the man had drugged her drink and raped her several weeks earlier, causing the pregnancy. Police arrested S. the next day and brought him to a hearing seeking a five-day extension of his detention. The police argued that the allegation was serious and that the woman would need a medical procedure to end the pregnancy.
S. admitted he had a romantic relationship with the complainant but denied any assault, calling the accusation a false setup. His lawyer said, “The woman is the respondent’s lover, they had a romantic relationship and there are messages she sent to his wife. We do not deny the existence of an intimate relationship.” In court, S. said the woman had filmed herself on his phone asking to have sex, sent messages to his wife demanding a divorce, and had done the same to a neighbor while accusing him too. “That’s her method, anyone who does not suit her she frames,” he told the judge.
After hearing both sides, the judge criticized the investigator for not examining the suspect’s claims in depth before the arrest. The court ordered S. released immediately and required Israel Police to pay him 620 shekels in compensation for wrongful arrest.
