Court Rejects Police Request to Detain Eyal Bukel After Return

Eyal Bukel, who returned to Israel last night after serving roughly nine years in a Thai prison, was arrested upon arrival on suspicion of conspiracy to commit a crime and making threats. However, the Petah Tikva Magistrate's Court rejected police requests to extend his detention and ordered his release under restrictive conditions.

Bukel is represented by attorney Jackie Segron. During the hearing, the Netanya police station requested a three-day extension of his detention.

The police representative argued that investigators possess investigative materials linking him to the alleged offenses and that two investigative steps remain. During the proceedings, attorney Segron pressed the police representative regarding the specific nature of the threats attributed to Bukel, asking who was threatened, when, and in what manner. The representative replied that the case materials had been presented to the court.

Segron argued that his client had spent nine years in harsh imprisonment conditions in Thailand, completely cut off from the outside world, and that his family had waited years for his return, only for him to be arrested immediately upon coming back to Israel.

Senior Judge Erez Nuriely rejected the police request, ruling that no reasonable suspicion had been presented to justify extending the detention and that the remaining investigative steps did not warrant keeping Bukel behind bars. The judge also noted that another suspect in the same case had been released under conditions restricted only to banishment from the city of Netanya. The court ordered that police complete the remaining investigative steps while Bukel is free, mandating his banishment from Netanya within a two-kilometer radius until September 13 at 12:00. Additionally, he must report for interrogation or to court upon demand, is barred from contacting individuals involved in the case for 30 days, and has signed a personal guarantee of 5,000 shekels.