Eilat gang rape: Investigation against hotel manager closes
One of the suspects at the time told police that he believed he saw the manager standing aside as the girl was raped and did not do anything, according to N12.
By TAMAR URIEL-BEERIIsraelis take part in a demonstration in support of the 16 year old victim of a gang rape in Eilat a few days ago, in Tel Aviv. August 22, 2020(photo credit: TOMER NEUBERG/FLASH90)
The Southern District Attorney’s Office has closed the investigation against Pnina Maman, the manager of the Red Sea Hotel where the alleged gang rape of a 16-year-old girl occurred, according to Maariv, the sister publication of The Jerusalem Post.Maman was arrested in August for disrupting the investigation proceedings and neglecting to prevent the gang rape that occurred on her premises. She was accused of standing aside and watching the line of men enter the hotel room in which the alleged rape occurred without acting.Police initially arrested the manager of the Red Sea Hotel in Eilat under suspicion of disrupting the investigation proceedings and failing to prevent the crime back in August.One of the suspects at the time told police that he believed he saw the manager standing aside as the girl was raped and did not do anything, according to N12.“I saw an open door and a lot of men lying with a woman,” he said, according to the Israeli news channel. “I saw someone who looks like the security officer of the hotel next to the manager of the hotel... we did not understand why they did not do anything.”On the day that the gang rape allegation had been revealed in Israeli media, the manager of the hotel told N12 that there is no evidence that the incident occurred there, and that if it had, the management on location “would have noticed.”The hotel did not respond to the police claim that the footage from the security cameras proves without a doubt that the incident did occur in the hotel.The hotel security chief said that “the girl and her friend had a hand in the affair,” according to N12.The Southern District Attorney’s Office filed 11 indictments at the beginning of September with the Beersheba District Court in the Eilat rape case, with two of the men accused of rape being named for the first time as 27-year-old Ilizir Meirov and 28-year-old Isi Rafilov from Hadera.The names of two 17-year-old minor twin brothers from a southern community who are also accused of rape remain under gag order.
Another defendant who was named is Osher Salma, 19, from Noga, who was indicted for more minor offenses related to the gang rape incident, including indecent assault and failure to prevent a felony.Three other unnamed minors were indicted for aiding and abetting the rape under aggravated circumstances, with one of them charged with failure to prevent a felony.Two other minors were charged with indecent assault, and another was charged with soliciting an indecent assault.Meirov and Rafilov have criminal records, including serving time in jail.Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.
