The Israeli Police Attempt to Coerce Rav Berland's Gabai in a Despicable Manner

The police in a desperate, despicable, and shameful attempt to extort a state's witness in the case of Rav Berland.

Yesterday marked another escalation in the police's attempts to manufacture incriminating materials against the great tzaddik, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a.

In a letter sent yesterday by Attorney Carmeli to the Jerusalem District Commander of the Israel Police, Superintendent Doron Yadid, it was written: "This is a base and invalid interrogation tactic, the entire purpose of which is to abuse the detainee and harm the thing most precious to him, in order to break his spirit" (from his letter sent today).

Today, Attorney Carmeli, the defense counsel for one of the gabbaim of Rav Berland, announced attempts at extortion of his client by the Israel Police in a despicable effort to force him to provide false testimony as a state's witness against Rav Berland. The police used threats against that gabbai, telling him that they would take his only son through the welfare authorities.

It seems that the Israel Police got "a little" carried away in their attempt to invent new evidence against Rav Berland - if there is so much evidence, why is a state's witness needed at all?

The Israel Police is attempting to create a legal precedent where a rabbi who promises salvation in exchange for a pidyon nefesh (redemption of the soul) is judged like the lowest of criminals - this is a blatant interference in legitimate Chassidic rabbinical leadership and part of an ongoing process of suppressing the freedom of the Jewish religion in the State of Israel.

Even if sums of money were found in the bank accounts of his associates - the Rav himself never had any part or control over these accounts, and he is disconnected from any use of bank accounts or credit cards of any kind - he always gave others everything he had - including all his cash - he simply does not need any money.

The Israel Police understands that it has no evidence in its hands that the Rav took money for himself, and therefore it is trying, using Sicilian-Bolshevik mafia methods, to threaten the Rav's gabbai to take his only child from him through the welfare authorities if he does not testify with lies against Rav Berland.

We saw these base attempts also in the Bezeq (4000) case of Netanyahu and Elovitch, in the criminal attempts by the Israel Police to force Nir Hefetz to say false things about Netanyahu as a state's witness.

In this case as well, unfortunately, the media festival is celebrating and leading the Israel Police like an obedient poodle to carry out media productions that will serve as manipulations to incite public opinion against Rav Berland.

In fact, holding an elderly and ill man in full detention conditions, including handcuffs, in a case involving suspicions of financial matters, constitutes a cruel and dangerous precedent in the suppression of civil liberty in Israel.

If there is a slight concern of obstruction or flight, one could certainly settle for exceptionally high bail, but full detention conditions severely harm the health of Rav Berland and literally endanger his life.

An immediate order must be given for the release of the Rav to house arrest, and the case should be managed in an orderly fashion in court legally, and not through a rabid media kangaroo court that seeps and leaks into the legal discourse and contaminates the judgment of the judges of Israel in general, and of Judge Lari-Bavli in particular, whose decision has not yet been overturned despite having been given in the most loathsome and contaminated manner.