Beit Shemesh Mayor Moshe Abutbul responded to the arrests of 10 persons, including some seeking to unseat him in the next municipal elections. Among those in custody is a senior official in City Hall and Degel Hatorah among some defendants who are involved in real estate projects in the city.
Speaking to the media on Sunday, 21 Iyar, Beit Shemesh Mayor Moshe Abutbul said “I was pained to hear of the arrests during the night. With my familiarization with some of the suspects, I am certain of their innocence. I remain hopeful and confident that law enforcement agencies will complete the investigation in an expeditious fashion and hope they detainees will be found innocent.”
The mayor added that he is not familiar with the matters involved in the case and “Baruch Hashem, I have no connection to the suspicions”.
Police moved on motzei Shabbos, arriving in Beit Shemesh after 2:00AM, making ten arrests, including officials working at City Hall. They are alleged to have involvement in bribery, fraud and breach of trust, in addition to tax evasion pertaining to a Satmar building project on Sfas Emmes Street in the city.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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12 Responses
I am just completely shocked, SHOCKED that a city that prides itself with chareidi leadership, and claims to be a Torah city could be involved in such a chillul hashem.
This is not the first time satmar was involved in mesira.
To chraeidi amiti,
And I was shocked too. Imagine people with black hats, beards, and white shirts being arrested. Obviously the Tsioni government set it all up because they don’t do army service. Unfortunately the courts hate these people so they will use falsified evidence to find them guilty
Unlike the anonymous mudslingers that infest the comment sections of Websites, Beit Shemesh’s mayor is willing to see what happens and does not assume that anyone is guilty just because they have been accused.
What a terrible picture. Why is a man alleged to be involved in white collar crime, with no suggestion that he is violent or a danger to anyone, paraded around with his hands cuffed together?
Why does yeshiva world allow nasty comments against frum people who are only alleged to have committed a crime against a human government, but will not allow comments against a choti umachti reform ”rabbi” who died piloting a pleasure aircraft on shabbos???????
cowdoc
May 6, 2018 12:04 pm at 12:04 pm
To chraeidi amiti,
And I was shocked too. Imagine people with black hats, beards, and white shirts being arrested.
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Since when are people with black hats, beards and white shirts exempted from being arrested ? Maybe the amish should be exempted too. They got beards and hats. Oh i forgot they dont wear white shirts!
Maybe the cardinal and pope should be exempted too because they wear a lange reckel and wear a yamulka. Oh, i forgot, the yamulka isnt black.
Didn’t Israel just pass a law that they will not allow the media to take these pictures. Plus I think they mentioned that they will not hand cuff. About 2 months ago in Israel, they caught a judge and a prosecutor exchanging all kinds of messages way before the actual court case. The picture here and the cuffs are not fair. Jerusalem observer is 100 percent correct.
Since when is a Torah city? Bnei Barak is a Torah city, Yerushalayim is a kadosh city with lots of Torah. Bet Shemesh is where people live so that they can I port Chutz l’Aretz and call it living in Eretz Yisroel. If somewhere there’s Torah as well, it’s purely coincidental.
Klugeryid: So sorry you were unsuccessful in posting hateful comments about the tragic death of Rav Panken, A’H, in an airplane accident but the Mods protected both you and the rest of us from the usual sinas chinam against other yidden. In any event, there is no analogy with YWN reporting on legally executed arrests of so called ehrliche yidden from Beis Shemesh for fraud, bribery. tax evasion etc. We need to stamp out the growing degree of corruption in the public sector and hopefully arrests like this will serve as a deterrent. As you recall, these kind of “perp walks” are SOP in the U.S. as well. Remember when the Feds dragged a bunch of rabbonim and askanim into jail during the Dwek affair several years ago. There were these same cries of “gevalt” , “anti-Semitism”, etc. but in the end, virtually all of those arrested either pleaded guilty or were convicted.
klugeryid
May 6, 2018 9:25 pm at 9:25 pm
Why does yeshiva world allow nasty comments against frum people who are only alleged to have committed a crime against a human government, but will not allow comments against a choti umachti reform ”rabbi” who died piloting a pleasure aircraft on shabbos??????
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A So called “frum” yid should know better then a reform rabbi. Besides, what the frum did was bain adam lachvero as oppose to the reform its bain adam lamakom and thats between hashem and him. When it comes to mamonos then its a whole different story, frum or not frum.
If all you supporters lived in RBS as I do & saw first hand the sorry state of this city (we have hundreds of shuls but no hospital, sports or recreational facilities, which are badly needed to help our kids, or any other community services), you’d realize there is a serious problem. I don’t know if it’s corruption or just incredible incompetence, but Abutbol has to go. These are his appointees. Note how quick he is to distance himself from his cronies.