Oz inspectors arrest Sudanese would-be molester
Jan. 7, 2010
RON FRIEDMAN , THE JERUSALEM POST
Oz immigration authority unit inspectors apprehended a Sudanese asylum seeker who allegedly attempted to attack two teenage girls in Tel Aviv's Levinsky Park on Wednesday.
The inspectors, who happened to be in the park as part of their routine activities, noticed the man approaching the girls and trying to make contact with them. According to squad commander Amos Rabiner, when the girls, aged 12 and 17, moved to a different bench he followed them and tried to touch them.
"I smelled something fishy. The man was clearly intoxicated or under the influence of drugs, so I told my men to be on their guard. When the girls left the park, he chased after them and tried to rip the shirt off one of them," reported Rabiner. "When we saw what he did, we sprang into action. We pounced on him, wrestled him down to the ground, handcuffed him and put him in our vehicle. We then called the police, who came to arrest him."
Rabiner said a commotion developed following the apprehension and that the inspectors had to protect the man from a group of neighborhood residents who appeared on the scene.
"Several of the man's friends also approached our van and surrounded it, but we managed to calm the situation until the police came," said Rabiner.
Rabiner said that the man was injured in the scuffle that accompanied his apprehension.
Amnon Ben Ami, director-general of the Immigration Authority, described the incident as "most severe."
