The Tel Aviv District Attorney’s Office (Criminal) filed today (Monday) in the Central District Court, an indictment against Amar Al-Assassi and his son Khaled Al-Assassi, for extortion, threats, damage to property maliciously, theft, engaging in unlicensed custody and more. Guard license within the city of Ariel, for the purpose of collecting sponsorship fees from various contractors while imposing terror and threats to damage the property and livelihood of the contractors.
According to the facts of the indictment filed by Adv. Elad Barak, during 2019, TN Ltd. won a tender in the city of Ariel, before the work began, the contractor and ML from Ariel’s economic company toured the site. At the time, Amar was staying at the site inside a temporary structure in order to collect sponsorship fees. The contractor clarified to Amar that maintenance of the site is required since the work is being done in collaboration with the Ariel Municipality.
Near the start of work on the site, ML saw that Amar was still inside the site illegally and that the illegal structure was in place, so he asked Amar to vacate the site and dismantle the illegal structure. The day after the incident, Amar called ML and the two arranged to meet near the site. At the meeting, Amar threatened ML and, among other things, told him: “You do not know me, I am not evacuated from here and I am guarding all of Ariel.” ML replied to Amar that he was allowed to work wherever he wished but not on the site. Against the background of the threat, an evacuation order was issued for the building. When ML was exposed to the activities of the defendants in Ariel, he began to find out with contractors operating in the city whether they were threatened by the defendants and even to warn various officials in the municipality about the defendants charging sponsorship fees. In light of the above and in order to motivate him to stop complaining about the activities of the defendants in the city of Ariel, Amar approached ML during an event in which the two were present and told him “here you are in my hands now” with the intention of intimidating him.
With the start of the work of TN Ltd. on the site and the placement of ZMA tools (mechanical engineering equipment), Amar turned to MAG (the company’s owners) on his own initiative, noting that guarding the area is important due to the danger of theft, while clarifying Because it is better for him to pay for the defendants’ guard services, otherwise the company he owns will suffer theft and damage to ZMA tools and property. When MAG discovered that Khaled had taken diesel fuel from ZMA vessels without permission, he fired him and stopped paying the defendants. In view of MAAG’s refusal to pay, site workers decided to collect a levy and pay the defendants in cash so that they would not damage the tools and their (workers’) livelihoods would be harmed. At the same time, the defendants sent pictures of the ZMA tools to one of the workers at the site and to the MAG and told them in threatening language that it was a pity that the defendants were not guarded. C. transferred a total of approximately NIS 50,000.
In addition, during 2019, AA Engineering won a tender to carry out infrastructure work in the city of Ariel. At the beginning of the work and placing the ZMA tools on the site, the defendants contacted the company representative and sent a message stating that they were solely responsible for guarding Ariel and offered to keep the site. Beer Keepers Ltd.
As part of the extortion plan and in order to motivate BA (the company’s owners) to pay more sponsorship fees, Khaled stole about 25,000 liters of diesel, despite the fact that BA did not respond to the demand to pay more. In light of BA’s refusal, Khaled took property from the site. BA found out about the theft of the property and filed a complaint about it with the police. BA’s attempts to contact the “beer guards” company and replace the defendants with guards who do not belong to the defendants ‘family were unsuccessful, due to the defendants’ control over the guard services in the city of Ariel. As a result, and out of fear of more serious damage to his property, B. continued to pay the defendants sponsorship fees. In total, BA transferred about NIS 184,000 to the defendants.
When the defendants learned that a criminal investigation was underway, they acted in a disruptive manner.
In addition, between 2019 and 2021, the defendants organized security services and engaged in security without a security license by the Licensing Committee in violation of the law.
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