This morning (Monday) an indictment should be filed against the models’ agent Shai Avital, who is suspected of sexually assaulting young women who asked for his help in entering the world of modeling.
Yesterday, the Central Unit (YMR) of the Tel Aviv district filed a prosecutor’s statement in his case, after completing the investigation of the two complainants’ files that served as the basis for Avital’s extradition request from the Netherlands to Israel. Avital arrived in Israel at the beginning of the month after the Dutch authorities accepted the Israeli request.
At the end of the investigation, it was determined that an evidentiary foundation was found for the commission of sexual offenses in the two complainants, one of whom was a minor at the time of the offense. The investigation into the other complaints in the case continues.
Avital allegedly committed sexual offenses against young women in 2015 and 2020. One of the alleged victims was only 16 years old at the time of the crime.
Avital was brought before a judge last week for another hearing on the extension of his detention, during which a prosecutor’s statement was submitted against him regarding the intention to file an indictment against him today and a request for detention until the end of the proceedings.
The prosecutor’s statement was based on only two complaints out of the 26 that came to the Tel Aviv District Police, before Avitel left the country and during the period when he was considered a fugitive. Avital is charged with indecent acts, while all the other crimes attributed to him during the investigation, including rape, did not materialize into an evidentiary foundation that leads to an indictment.