A teenage girl who was gang raped by several men at a hotel room in Eilat was used "as a tool" for the perpetrators' amusement, said the indictment filed Wednesday.
The Southern District Prosecution in Be'er Sheva on Wednesday morning indicted eleven men for their alleged involvement in the gang rape of a 16-year-old at the Red Sea Hotel last month. Four of the suspects face charges of rape, while the rest were indicted for indecent assault, abetting a rape, criminal conspiracy and failure to prevent a crime.
Earlier, police released names the main suspects as Ilizir Meirov and Issy Rafailov, both residents of Hadera. Meirov, 27, and Rafailov, also in his late 20s, along with two 17-year-old twins from southern Israel face charges of rape.
The rest of the suspects, among them 19-year-old Osher Shlomo from moshav Noga in southern Israel, and six other minors, were hit with charges of indecent assault, abetting a rape, criminal conspiracy and failure to prevent a crime.
The charges have not been publicized in full in order to protect the identity of the victim, but the known details from the police investigation shed light on the horrific ordeal that allegedly took place that day in room 216.
A legal official associaspoke to Ynet about how inhumane the treatment of the victim was and how helpless the 16-year-old must have felt.
"The public sphere did not protect this 16-year-old girl, but ate her alive," said the official. "There was no righteous man in Sodom. But you don't even have to be the righteous man in Sodom. Just have some compassion. Be a human being, which none of the people there were."
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One of the main suspects in the Red Sea Hotel rape case in court
(Photo: Barel Efraim )
According to the indictment, the girl and two of her friends arrived at the Red Sea Hotel on August 12. The three apparently were at the hotel's pool around the same time as Meirov and Rafailov.
Rafailov, who knew the victim was only 16-years-old, offered her to come to a party with him, to which she refused.
After the pool was closed, the victim and her friends went to a room of her male acquaintances on the second floor. The girl allegedly was intoxicated to the point where she could not control herself.
Around 7pm, Meirov and Rafailov barged into an empty room No. 216 on the second floor, normally reserved for shuttle drivers, without alerting the hotel reception or paying for it.
Once the victim and her friends walked out of the room they were staying at, Rafailov approached her and said he could help her, noting that he had previous experience at first aid. They lead the girl to their room, where according to the indictment, the one- and-a-half-hour assault took place.
According to the prosecution, after the victim entered the room, the two suspects raped her one after the other, ignoring her pleas for help. At some point a group of teenagers noticed the events in the room, two of whom joined the assault and also raped the teen one after the other.
Eventually one of the teens, accused of failing to prevent a crime, took the victim out of the room following the pleas of her friend.
Rafailov, according to the prosecution, stayed the whole time in the room, while the other defendants committed the offenses attributed to them and left.
In addition, Rafailov filmed Meirov raping the victim on his phone and sent to him the video afterwards. One of the men send a message to the victim a day later, telling her she had been filmed. The victim allegedly did not remember the ordeal but filed a police complaint following the text exchange.
Several other suspects have also allegedly filmed and took pictures of themselves and each other during the act.
Both Rafailov and Meirov have served sentences for past offenses.