The Supreme Court today postponed ruling on an appeal by the families of several suspects in the Arab bus sabotage attempt to ease the terms of their detention. The justices reportedly expressed hope that the investigation would be sufficiently advanced on the next 3-4 days to allow the suspects contact with their lawyers.
The law permits suspects to be held incommunicado in the early stages of a criminal investigation. According to media reports. 19 men are under detention in separate prisons in various parts of the country to avoid the possibility of collusion in their evidence. Most are said to be residents of the West Bank or the Golan Heights.
Some newspapers reported today that two of the suspects confessed under questioning that they were involved in an attack on the Islamic College in Hebron last July in which four students were killed and more than a score wounded. Three others confessed to planting bombs in five Arabowned buses in East Jerusalem last Friday, the media reported. The suspects are believed to be members of an underground Jewish terrorist gang.
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