Jerusalem Pride Stabber Rearrested Over New Plot
Image by Getty Images
JERUSALEM — Yishai Schlissel, who is serving a life sentence for stabbing six marchers at last year’s Jerusalem Pride Parade and killing a 16-year-old, was arrested in prison for a violent plot against this year’s march.
Israel Police cleared for release Thursday, hours before the scheduled start of the march, that Schlissel was arrested in prison Wednesday on charges of conspiracy to commit a crime and for planning an attack on the parade.
Schlissel reportedly hatched the plot with his brother, Michae,l to attack march participants and to not allow the march to go off peacefully.
Michael Schlissel also was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of planning an attack on this year’s march and will be kept in prison until after the march, according to reports.
Their mother and four other siblings were ordered out of Jerusalem until after the march as well, though their home is in the city. They were all questioned by police on Wednesday, according to reports.
Police have said the march will take place as planned. Heightened security plans for the march were unveiled earlier this week.
Yishai Schlissel, who is haredi Orthodox, had been released from prison several weeks before the 2015 parade after serving 10 years for a similar attack at the Jerusalem gay pride parade in 2005. In the days leading up to last year’s parade, Schlissel expressed his opposition to the march in interviews and in ads in haredi synagogues in Jerusalem and Kiryat Sefer.
Police initially turned away Schlissel at an entrance point to the parade, but he found a way in later in the route.
The parade is to be held under tight security and is dedicated in memory of last year’s victim, Shira Banki.
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