WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israeli authorities arrested an extreme rightist on suspicion of murdering two Palestinians in 1998.
Chaim Pearlman, a follower of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, was arrested Tuesday, but a court gagged publication of his arrest until Wednesday.
Pearlman, 30, has been arrested in the past for banned forms of activism, including the alleged distribution of posters inciting against Israeli leaders, according to Haaretz.
He is alleged to have fatally stabbed two Palestinians in Jerusalem a dozen years ago and to have attacked others, Ynet reported. Israeli media had dubbed the attacker "the serial stabber."
Pearlman’s lawyer, Adi Kedar, was quoted as saying that the charges were baseless and the case would embarrass the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service.
Ynet quoted associates of Pearlman as saying that at one time he had been a Shin Bet informant.
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