An indictment was handed down against N.Y.P. (name on file) a 26-year-old chareidi resident of Jerusalem for claiming to be a facilitator who can expedite medical care in the Israeli system by being close to Rabbi Elimelech Firer of the Ezra L’Marpeh organization and an aide to Health Minister Yaakov Litzman. The indictment was handed down on Wednesday morning 18 Elul in the Jerusalem Magistrate Court.

YNP approached patients in Hadassah Ein Kerem and Shaare Zedek Hospitals ad explained he was close to Rabbi Firer and was able to expedite care for a fee. He allegedly took sizable sums of money from family members of the patients for this service. The indictment mentions that in one case, he took NIS 20,000 for a cemetery plot from a woman on her death bed R”L.

Police report they already have complaints from five families and are working to obtain others. It is added that three physicians, including two senior physicians from Ein Kerem, have been questioned under warning – suspected of accepting bribes for expedited medical care. They deny the allegations against them.

Police representative David Koriat told the court during the hearing the suspect took advantage of people when they were in a difficult situation, simply benefiting from their pain and suffering.

The case came to light when a hospital security officer received a complaint from a cancer patient. YNP took a sum of money form the man for an expedited interpretation of a MRI of his head after allegedly showing forged documentation indicating the growth in his head returned while B”H this was not the case.

Attorney Shalom Ben-Shabbat is representing YNP, telling the court the allegations against his client lack evidentiary support. He added that even if the allegations were true, at worst his client is guilty of fraud, nothing more, and this does not request detention as police request, to hold him without bail. He added that police have failed to show any evidence that his client attempted to interfere with the ongoing investigation as alleged.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)