INDICTED: He picked up hitchhiking Yeshiva students and assaulted them

The State Attorney's Office submitted today (Monday) to the Magistrate's Court in Petah Tikva an indictment against Rafi Shimon (37) from Mevaseret Zion, who committed serious acts against 13 minors and adults whom he collected from hitchhiking stations. Most of the victims are yeshiva students.

According to the indictment, filed by attorney Ihab Abu Abid from the Central District Attorney's Office (Criminal), the defendant carried out the acts systematically over a period of about two years, targeting young men and adults with religious appearances whom he collected from various hitchhiking stations.

Typically, Shimon would pick up these yeshiva students from the entrance to the town of Elad, get them into his car, and carry out his schemes.

The defendant exploited their innocence with the false pretext that he could take them to their destination, and as part of his plan, committed serious acts against them during the ride.

When the complainants got into the hitchhike, the defendant urged them to place their belongings in the back seat, so that he could touch his passengers inappropriately All this despite repeated objections from the complainants, who pushed the defendant away, refused to put down their belongings, and left the vehicle at the first opportunity they could.

The indictment attributes to the defendant 13 charges for committing multiple offenses of indecent acts.

The Prosecutor's Office stated: "We are asking the court to detain the defendant until the end of the legal proceedings against him. In the detention request, the prosecution noted that the defendant used his position to harm a large number of complainants time after time, which indicates that this is a dangerous person who may continue to harm public safety, particularly young men from the Haredi community."