One Suspect in the Yemanu Zalka Murder Case to Be Released to House Arrest

More than a month after the violent attack on the late Yemanu Benjamin Zalka outside the Pizza Hut branch in Petah Tikva, which ended with his death from a stabbing, the Supreme Court ruled that one of the minors accused in the case of causing serious bodily harm will be released to house arrest as soon as an opinion is received stating that an electronic ankle monitor can be fitted on his body.

On Independence Day evening, the group of minors attacked Zalka outside the Pizza Hut branch where he worked, punching and kicking him and throwing cans of snow spray, while one of the other boys stabbed him in the groin. Zalka was critically injured and taken to Beilinson Hospital, where he died the next day from his wounds. An indictment has been filed against one minor for murder with indifference, and 14 others are charged with causing serious bodily harm.

The lawyer for the defendant, Attorney Eyal Ohayon, argued in the appeal request that the Central District Court, which is hearing the case as a juvenile court, refuses to examine the possibility of his release to an alternative to detention, despite agreeing, he said, to assume there is prima facie evidence against him. The defense attorney emphasized that the Probation Service had already submitted a report early in the month recommending that the minor be placed under electronic monitoring at his family home, but despite this, his requests to advance the hearing on his release were repeatedly rejected.

Ohayon noted that, "My client has no criminal record, this is his first involvement with the law, and he even turned himself in to the police at his parents' initiative after telling them about his role in the incident." According to him, "The minor was not present at the start of the confrontation, did not arrive at the scene with the other participants, did not know about the existence of a knife, and could not have foreseen the fatal outcome."

According to the appeal, the judges in the district court rejected several requests to move up a hearing on the defendant's release and also refused to order an electronic monitoring feasibility check before ruling on the question of prima facie evidence. The defense argued that this prevents a substantive examination of the recommended alternative to detention, despite the fact that he has been held for a month.

As mentioned, the Supreme Court accepted the appeal and ordered the boy released to house arrest. His lawyer welcomed the decision, saying, "The Supreme Court made the necessary distinction between a public and media trial and the actual legal situation. That is what the district court should have ordered already on the day the indictment was filed."