Brother of terror cell member arrested in undisclosed probe

Nazareth resident arrested in secret investigation is brother of terrorist involved in Yafim Weinstein killing.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
arrest 311 R (photo credit: REUTERS/Eric Gaillard )
arrest 311 R
(photo credit: REUTERS/Eric Gaillard )
A 26-year-old Nazareth man who is the brother of a convicted terror-cell member was arrested over suspicions that cannot be disclosed at this stage, police announced on Tuesday.
A court-imposed media ban prevents publication of details regarding the covert investigation that led to the arrest.
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The suspect is the brother of one of a group of men serving a prison sentence for murdering taxi driver Yafim Weinstein in 2009.
Weinstein, of Upper Nazareth, was found dead in his cab.
The following year, police and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) arrested seven Israeli-Arabs who had sworn allegiance to al- Qaida, and charged them with the murder.
The terror-cell members were named then as Ahmed Ali Ahmed, 21, Jalib Janam, 26, Wassim Allam, 23, Khidar Ziddana, 22, Ahbed Abu-Salim, 19, Adi Azzam, 23, and Oman Kakhibi, 22 – all Nazareth residents.
The group was described by police at the time as “one of the most dangerous cells we have uncovered.”
Security forces said the seven founded an extremist Sunni Islamic group and plotted several lethal acts.
The group was mostly radicalized online using material found on the Internet, downloaded jihadi promotional material and instructions to prepare explosives. Police said they were also influenced by a radical Nazareth imam, Nazim Mahmoud Salim, who was charged in 2010 with using sermons to incite to violence.
Two of the cell members, Ahmed and Janam, attempted to travel to an al-Qaida training camp in Somalia after Weinstein’s murder, but were barred from entering Somalia at the Kenyan border.
Three other cell members planned to kidnap a Nazareth resident, a Christian man who “insulted the prophet Muhammad,” and behead him on video, but did not go ahead with their plot.
The men also threw stun grenades and Molotov cocktails at Jewish- and Christian-owned businesses