5 Haredim indicted for breaking into Jerusalem light rail construction site

Five ultra-Orthodox extremists are charged with trespassing and rioting at a Jerusalem light rail construction site, after staging an illegal sit-in during protests earlier in July against a planned new route for the train.

Elazar Glick, 25; Yitzhak Ze’ev Koifman, 33; Avraham Zvi Lederman, 25; Shimon Shapira, 22, and Bezalel Lederman, 20, residents of Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh, are charged with “crimes of rioting, trespassing to commit a crime, obstructing a police officer in the performance of his functions, violation of a lawful order and prohibited assembly”.

“Prosecutors have asked the court to order the arrest of the defendants until the end of the legal proceedings against them,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

In two separate incidents, prosecutors said the men broke into the light rail construction site on Bar Ilan Street in Jerusalem, sat in holes dug as part of the construction work and refused to leave. to move. Shortly after, protesters were evicted and arrested after refusing calls from police to leave on their own.