Police last week detained David Krauss at Ben-Gurion Airport. David is a son of Yolish Krauss, the so-called operations office of the Eida Chareidis, and he was heading on a trip to be mispallel at kivrei tzaddikim, using what police reported to be a forged passport. After he arrived at the police station for questioning, he was arrested in connection with attacks against firemen in Meah Shearim. He was ordered released by a court on Thursday morning.

According to a Kikar Shabbos News report, the police are now probing a far more serious operation, which they believe involves the manufacture of forged passports in connection with assisting people wanted by the IDF for not reporting to the draft to leave the country. Krauss is believed to be one of the people who acquired such a passport, and he was apprehended as he was trying to leave Ben-Gurion.

On Wednesday evening, police notified Krauss they no longer suspect his passport of being forged, and the passport was returned to him. He was released and immediately taken to Jerusalem’s Russian Compound detention center in connection to the attacks against firemen responding to calls in Jerusalem.

He was remanded on Thursday, but Jerusalem Magistrate Court Judge David Epstein released Krauss, who due to family constraints is today called David Epstein.

In the course of the hearing, his attorney presented a video in which Krauss is seen walking along with his friends in a procession against Independence Day. At the same time, the firefighters were attacked, but Krauss himself had no connection to the attack which the attorney argued happened to take place where his client was.

At the end of the hearing, the judge decided to accept the argument of his lawyer Nadav Gedalyahu that this is a very low threshold of proof and agreed to release him to house arrest with a bond of NIS 5,000, and a commitment to appear on demand.

Attorney Gedalyahu, said: “The court dismissed the police request to extend his remand for five days and the court threw out the shameful request and made the right decision.

The report adds that the suspicion of forging the passport stemmed from the fact that Krauss the son was recently issued a foreign citizenship, and it is registered in a name other than that known to the Israeli authorities. It should be noted that Krauss does not have an Israeli identity card.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)