Jerusalem – Israeli Teens Arrested in Cyprus Last week Return Home

Jerusalem – The three Israeli teens who were arrested last week in Cyprus for allegedly breaking into a room in the hotel they were staying were released on Saturday and have returned home.

One of the detainees, Snir Batito, asked the judge to take into consideration that he was a terror victim, as his mother Shlomit was shot dead while she was passing near (the former Gaza Strip settlement of) Nisanit in 2004.

The three Israelis – Batito, Almog Amsalem and Rotem Sabach – were arrested after a young woman complained that they had broken into her hotel room. On Saturday a local judge authorized their release and return to Israel.

“I’m very happy to be home,” Batito told Ynet upon his arrival in Israel.

His father Eli said of the teens’ arrest, “It was an act of mischief. They did not break in and did not steal anything; they were just having some fun at the expense of the young woman. She was missing a bottle of whiskey and decided that (they had stolen it).

“All of the boys are athletes who stay away from trouble,” he said. “I think the judge understood that these are good kids with no criminal record. Maybe the court sympathized with Snir because of the tragedy.”

Yigal Kirshenzaft, the former head of Beit Chabad in Gush Katif told Ynet “when Snir’s father told me that his son had been arrested, I immediately contacted the Chabad community in Cyprus. We turned Cyprus upside down to get him and his friends out of there.”

According to Kirshenzaft, while incarcerated the teens had not eaten for three days until Chabad representatives provided them with kosher meals and were held in the same cell with Syrian and Lebanese detainees.

“It was very rough for them. They were threatened and abused,” he said.