Rabbis Questioned in Slaying of Rabin Will Not Face Charges

No charges are expected to be pressed against the rabbis questioned about issuing religious justification for the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s, according to Israel Television.

Police investigators were quoted Thursday as saying that no proof had been found connecting any articles or remarks made by the rabbis to the act of murder itself.

However, charges would likely be brought against three other suspects questioned – Margalit Har-Shefi, Ohad Skornik and Michael Epstein – who were suspected of knowing about the plot to kill Rabin, Israel Television reported.

Meanwhile, Avishai Raviv, leader of the Eyal right-wing group, and a reported informant for Israel’s domestic security service, the Shin Bet, testified before the Shamgar commission of inquiry that is investigating the assassination.

Israel Radio reported that the closed-door session Thursday was aimed at determining the relationship between Raviv and Yigal Amir, the 25-year-old law student who confessed to killing Rabin.

After Raviv’s name surfaced in connection with the assassination, reports appeared that Raviv was a Shin Bet informant, and had passed on Amir’s name as a extremist right-wing activist.

Raviv denied the allegations. He also denied reports that he was involved in the printing and distribution at an anti-government rally posters portraying Rabin in a Gestapo uniform.

Police surrounded Raviv as he left the Jerusalem building where the panel has been meeting, preventing journalists form interviewing him.

Earlier, Rabbi Benny Alon, one of the leaders of the grass-roots right-wing group Zo Artzeinu, or This is Our Land, appeared before the panel.

Alon was the first to claim that Raviv was a Shin Bet informant.