Four settlers arrested for mosque arson attack

World

Four settlers arrested for mosque arson attack

Close

19 January,2010 05:23 am

Israeli police arrested four university students on suspicion of involvement in last month's desecration of a Palestinian mosque, police sources said.They said six other students at the Jewish settlement of Yitzhar were questioned over the December 10 incident in the village of Yasuf, and then freed as they were minors. Another teenage suspect from a West Bank settlement was already in police custody.The torching of carpets and holy books in Yasuf's mosque had stirred up Palestinian indignation at a time of stalled peace talks with Israel. Hebrew graffiti left at the mosque called the attack a price tag, settler code for provocations meant to scuttle any Israeli plan to cede occupied land to the Palestinians. A lawyer for the four suspects said three of them denied the charges against them. He said he had been barred from meeting the fourth by Israel's Shin Bet domestic intelligence service, which has a division dedicated to tackling pro-settler violence.