BREAKING NEWS

State to pay NIS 2.2 million to family of former Bar Noar murder suspect Felician

The state announced on Thursday that it has reached a compensation agreement with Hagai Felician, the man who was indicted for the 2009 Bar Noar LGBT youth club murders, only to have the charges dropped six months later.
The State Attorney’s Office and the Israel Police reached a deal through arbitration by which the state will pay the Felician family NIS 2.2 million in damages. As part of the agreement, any claims by the Felician family of negligence or miscarriage of justice will be dropped.
Both Hagai Felician and his brother Benny were suspected of involvement in the murders in Tel Aviv, with the former being indicted, only to have the state later drop the charges when the state’s key witness was found to be fabricating testimony. The family had originally sought damages of tens of millions of shekels for the wrongful arrest and indictment. They accused the state of negligence for indicting Hagai based on the testimony of an unreliable witness. The sides agreed to mediation, the result of which was Thursday’s settlement.
The 2009 Bar Noar shooting claimed the lives of 17-yearold Liz Troubishi from Holon and 26-year-old Nir Katz from Givatayim and wounded 15 others. The police announced a breakthrough in the case in 2013, which led to the arrest of Hagai Felician, Benny Felician and Tarlan Hankishayev.
Six months later, suspected trigger man Hagai Felician was set free, as the state’s witness – Tarlan Hankishayev’s brother – admitted to making up the allegations.
The police have not announced the arrest of any further suspects in the unsolved murders.
IDF SOLDIERS and US Army observers stand on rubble during an earthquake drill in Holon in October 2012. (Nir Elias/Reuters