Two cousins from Ofakim blackmailed hareidim who went to clubs

The Attorney's Office of the Southern District, by Attorney Eiran Zabari, yesterday filed charges at the District Court in Beer Sheva against two cousins - Ehud Ben Makhlouf Benisti and Yonatan Elroy – residents of Ofakim, who blackmailed hareidim who went out to clubs in Tel - Aviv.

According to the indictment, during November - December 2012, the defendants conspired to extort money from religious and hareidi people who spent time in Tel Aviv clubs, threatened them, when in return for payment of money they receive, they will avoid telling about the deeds to their families - all part of the desire of the defendants to make a large profit in a short time.

In one case, Yonathan Elroy phoned N., a hareidi who used to spend time in clubs in Tel - Aviv, telling him that he has an investigation agency, which has followed him for half a year and gathered video footage and materials indicating that N spent time in clubs. Yonatan subsequently demanded of N a total of 200 thousand dollars – otherwise he will transfer the materials collected to his wife's family and educational institutions attended by the N's children.

Later in the day he demanded only the sum of $ 20,000, otherwise he would realize the threat. As a result, N. contacted the Hebron police and filed a complaint about the act of extortion. Then N. called Yonatan, who informed him that he had sent a taxi driver to collect the money from a gathering point near Betar Illit.

Hebron police detectives reached the meeting point, who detained the driver and questioned him. From there the detectives traveled by taxi to Kastina junction, to meet with Yonatan. One of the detectives replaced the taxi driver, just before the meeting. Yonatan and the detective who sat in the taxi driver's seat were talking, until at some point Yonatan began running, and began to run away into the agricultural fields surrounding the intersection.

Hebron detectives started running after Yonatan, while shouting at him: "Stop, police!", until they caught up with him and arrested him.

In another case, the defendants extorted from another Haredi - H, the sum of about 64,000 NIS, while threatening him in writing and orally, to damage his reputation.

The indictment charges the defendants with crimes of blackmail and conspiracy to commit a crime.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!