Disgraced Shuvu Banim leader Eliezer Berland met with Meir Shitrit, the brother of Nissim Shitrit, who disappeared at age 17 over 30 years ago and is believed to have been murdered by Shuvu Banim members.
The meeting between the two was arranged by police investigators upon Berland’s request. The investigators rushed to bring Shitrit before Berland changed his mind. The two met in the presence of the investigators and Shitrit asked Berland if he should say Kaddish for his brother.
“Your brother’s not alive. You can sit Shiva and say Kaddish for him,” Berland responded. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you this 35 years ago.”
Berland also met with another suspect, one of his close followers who is suspected of committing the actual murder of Shitrit, and tried to convince him to cooperate with the investigators and lead them to the place where the body was buried. However, the suspect refused to cooperate and is still not answering the investigators’ questions, at the advice of his attorney.
However, due to the testimony of other suspects which revealed new information, police investigators began carrying out intensive searches for Shitrit’s remains in the forest near Jerusalem on Wednesday morning. The police said on Wednesday that they now know who exactly kidnapped and murdered Shitrit and the day it occurred – February 2, 1986.
A week and a half ago, a Kan News report revealed that the police obtained a recording of one of the main suspects in the murders speaking about the connection to Berland.
“[The murders] were carried out due to ‘submission’ to the cult,” he said. “They weren’t criminals, people with a criminal background…it began with him [Berland], it continued with him and it ended with him.”
The already imprisoned Berland was detained on Monday for alleged involvement in the two murder cases and on Tuesday, a judge at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court extended his detention for nine days, saying that he “implicated himself in the alleged charges and provided a detailed version of the events.”
“He was involved together with others in the perpetration of two murders,” the judge said. “I examined the investigative file and there is proof after proof submitted by the court in the cases of others who are suspected of the same acts attributed to the defendant,” the judge stated. “There is a reasonable suspicion that the criminal acts were committed.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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7 Responses
There’s no capital punishment in Israel, allowing this putrefied soul to sit out his final years in a prison cell. At least we won’t have to hear about him anymore.
יארצייט כ”ג שבט
His spot in Gehennom is waiting for him, his wife, his followers and everyone who knew about these crimes. I pity the cult members who aren’t able to see the truth… they may as well join Lev Tahor because they can’t let go of a cult.
But what about the others who now face the fact that their getchke has feet of clay & is a scammer, pervert, cheat & murderer. What will happen to them? Are there enough therapists to help them & their families? Some won’t survive, spiritually, emotionally or physically.
hml – you are assuming that they will face that fact. If past is prologue, they won’t. They haven’t until now, and there isn’t much reason to believe they will in the future. Sure maybe some will, but its a lot easier to deny the reality staring in your face and somehow justify it than it is to admit reality and that you really made a poor judgement call in choosing your ruchniyusdike mentor. History has some comparisons – think the Shabzai Tzvi believers who persisted in their belief long after he converted to Islam, and in some cases did so for generations.
Hml FYI his wife isn’t part of his followers and they’re semi-separated in fact she and his son kept him in the house many years closed so he can’t do more wrong
Rotzeach hu, mois yumas.
Why in the caption below the picture are YWN still referring to him as Rabbi Berland?