The Cabinet agreed yesterday to allocate extra funds to the police and justice ministries to pay for additional manpower and other resources needed to apprehend and prosecute alleged criminals engaged in the protection-extortion rackets. It was the third session in which the Cabinet took up the problem of organized crime which is reportedly flourishing in Israel major cities and in smaller urban centers.
Police Minister Shlomo Hillel said the police were giving priority to investigations of the protection-extortion racket that victimizes businesses large and small. He said the public prosecutors were speeding up the preparation of cases and the courts were placing them high on their calendars. The Knesset’s law committee was asked to speed up action on a draft bill whereby testimony given to police by victims of the racket cannot be withdrawn in court.
The Cabinet also adopted a resolution urging the public to report all cases of extortion to the police. The police and prosecutors have claimed that the greatest hindrance to arresting and pressing charges against alleged racketeers was the fear on the part of their victims to report criminal extortion and to testify against the perpetrators.
Meanwhile, a committee headed by Supreme Court Justice Haim Landau has been asked to draft legislation that would empower the police to keep extortion suspects in jail pending trial. At present, only murder suspects are kept behind bars.
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