Police investigating the bomb plot here which was nipped in the bud last Sunday today received a letter threatening to kidnap the chief of the police investigating department unless Dov Shilansky, first of three men arrested in connection with the plot, is released immediately.
The letter which arrived at police headquarters this morning was signed “Sicricim,” the secret underground group formed shortly after the Herut demonstrations last year against the German reparations negotiations. The entire letter, and the signature, was typewritten.
Meanwhile, the police announced the arrest of a third man, Yefet Gamliel, a 47-year-old resident of Tel Aviv who was arrested in Zichron Yaacov where he was spending a vacation. Gamliel, who was a Herut candidate in the last municipal elections, claims that he spent the entire week at Zichron Yaacov, but the police insist that he helped Shilansky transport the bomb to the Foreign Ministry building here where Shilansky was apprehended as he was setting the timing mechanism.
The second man arrested, Jacob Lotan, former Irgun commander in Europe, was today held over for 15 days while the police continue their investigation. All three suspects came to Israel on the Irgun vessel Altalena.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.