Four members of the underground religious order Brit Kanaim who went on trial in the Jerusalem district court yesterday were today acquitted of seven major charges including conspiracy to wage war on the state and conspiracy to bomb the Knesset. The acquittal, which followed an announcement that the Attorney General would present no evidence to support the major charges, left the four facing lesser charges such as attempting to set fire to the Knesset chamber, plotting to burn documents concerning the drafting of religious women for compulsory service and the burning of butcher shops selling non-kosher meat and vehicles driven on the Sabbath. The hearings on these charges were postponed until next month.
The four defendants are: Yehuda Rider, Mordechai Eliahu, Eliahu Raful and Noach Wormesser. Their arrest, together with some 50 others last May on the eve of the alleged attempt to bomb the Knesset chamber, created a sensation in Israel. Their imprisonment and subsequent protest against alleged police brutality at the Jalame detention camp where they were held, caused heated debates in Parliament and the appointment of a special Parliamentary commission to investigate their detention.
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