Prosecutors on Sunday indicted four men from Beit Shemesh for rioting outside the home of Deputy Supreme Court President Noam Sohlberg in the West Bank settlement of Alon Shvut on June 3.

The four are the first to be indicted over the destructive demonstration against the judge, who enraged Haredi leaders with a November ruling that called for criminal sanctions on draft-evading yeshiva students. Police have nabbed dozens of suspected rioters from the demonstration.

The defendants were identified as Nachman Platnik, 20; Abraham Fried, 20; Gershon Hanoun, 21; and Shimon Atep, 41. All have been in custody since the day of the riot, according to the indictment, and prosecutors informed the court they would seek prison sentences. The defendants will remain in custody until the court says otherwise.

All four defendants were charged with rioting, and Platnik and Fried were also charged with trespassing in order to commit a crime.

Posters announcing the riot were plastered on roads and synagogues in the Haredi city of Bnei Brak on the day of the incident, said the indictment, which was filed in the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court.

But prosecutors don’t know who led the riot, or who paid for the two buses and minibus that shuttled over 100 men, including the defendants, from Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, to Alon Shvut, the indictment said.

Sohlberg and his wife were at home at the time of the riot, which sought “to deter Justice Solberg with regard to his rulings as a judge in petitions related to the issue of conscripting yeshiva students,” prosecutors said.

“Many dozens” of rioters blocked Sohlberg’s street, yelled derogatory chants including “Nazi” and brought small Israeli flags with a swastika instead of a Star of David, according to the indictment.

They also stoned the judge’s........

© The Times of Israel