Indictments were filed in an Israeli court on Sunday against a gang of criminals who stole five Sifrei Torah and also committed four violent robberies at supermarkets and convenience stores in cities in central Israel.

Israel Police released a statement saying that “its anti-crime unit carried out an intensive investigation in the past few weeks against a gang of five criminals for violent robberies. In the course of the investigation, the same gang broke into a shul in Yehud in the middle of the night and stole five Sifrei Torah, which they offered for sale to the highest bidder.”

“At this stage, the investigative team focused its efforts on locating the Sifrei Torah and indeed its efforts bore fruit and the Sifrei Torah were located in a warehouse belonging to one of the suspects. This development marked the transition of the investigation to the overt stage, which included the arrest of several additional suspects and many additional investigative actions that resulted in the formation of extensive evidence against the suspects for all their robberies.”

“With the conclusion of the aforementioned comprehensive investigation, the prosecutor’s office filed an indictment on Sunday for five incidents of robbery, break-in, and theft of Sifrei Torah from a shul against the two main suspects who are in custody, residents of Or Yehuda and Yehud.” The police will also file indictments against the three other suspects, who have been released to house arrest, in the near future.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)