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JERUSALEM - Five Israeli police officers are under arrest on suspicion of carrying out gangland style revenge attacks against a suspected organised crime family in the northern town of Nahariya, a police spokesman said.
The arrests were made last month but information was released only after a gag order was lifted Thursday, the latest in a series of embarrassing cases that led to resignation of a police commissioner earlier this year.
The officers allegedly planted a pipe bomb under the car of one of the country's biggest crime chiefs and lobbed a grenade into his house. They are also accused of breaking into the homes of suspected criminals and damaging their property.
"They took the law into their own hands after they were targeted by the crime families they were investigating," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen expressed outrage over the officers' behaviour but said no external investigation will be launched. "I have no intention now to set up an (inquiry) commission. I've had enough of commissions," Cohen said.
Cohen assumed command of Israel's police in April after the previous commissioner, Moshe Karadi, resigned after an inquiry commission charged that he ignored ties between police and organised crime. That followed a series of indictments that implicated police officers in crimes including murder.
There have been numerous cases of bombing attacks against police officers homes in northern Israel attributed to crime families over the past few years. The attacks are usually viewed as scare tactics to stop investigations, Rosenfeld said.
"The gangsters threw over 40 grenades at the policemen's homes, and in one case they fired a LAW anti-tank missile at them," he said.
According to the indictment, the officers used the gangsters' own methods to fight back.
"The officers placed a homemade bomb under the crime chief's vehicle and threw a grenade through a window of his house," Rosenfeld said.
The Haifa district court extended the policemen's detention by seven days on Thursday. They are being held on charges of weapons violations, fraud, breach of trust and attempt to cause damage with explosives, according to the indictment. No date has been set for the next hearing.
- AP
