The gag order was lifted Wednesday on the affair of the "famous singer" who allegedly had sex with underage girls, revealing him to be Mizrahi pop sensation Eyal Golan.
After 15 hours of questioning, Eyal Golan left the police station at 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday. He received the kind of treatment reserved for VIPs: He was driven in an unmarked car and covered with a coat by a police officer.
Driving ahead of the unmarked car was a SWAT vehicle. Both cars drove at high speed to avoid being photographed by the media. Golan was released to house arrest.
Despite the gag order on his name, the entire country knew for almost a week that the suspect was Eyal Golan, one of Israel's most famous singer in Mizrahi style, was suspected of having sex with girls under the age of consent, which is 16.
The singer, his father, a party promoter, a media executive and an employee of Liam Productions were all questioned by police as part of the scandal that allegedly involved pimping underage girls, drugs and sex parties with young girls.
The singer was released on Wednesday night to a five-day house arrest. The party promoter and media executive were also released. The Tel Aviv District Police, under Commander Gadi Eshed, decided that Golan's father and the employee of the production company would remain in detention. They will be brought before a judge Thursday morning for an extension of their remand.
The singer's father is suspected of grave offenses, including pimping underage girls, consensual statutory rape and tempting underage girls to use drugs. Golan himself is suspected of consensual statutory rape of two underage girls and of using drugs with underage girls.
In the coming days the investigators will hold confrontations between the accused and the girls in order to clear up some of the conflicting testimonies. The investigators will also confront the suspects with evidence from witness testimony and wiretapping. Reportedly, Golan's father, who is suspected of having sex with seven female minors, boasted that he "conquered" a young girl and even sent a text message to that effect.
"I thought it was a practical joke"
The dramatic turn in the case took place Wednesday morning, with the launch of the official investigation at Tel Aviv Police headquarters. The main gag order on the case was lifted in the afternoon, after Golan allowed media to report his name even before his court appearance.
All five of the initial suspects have denied the accusations. In the coming days, police plan to question additional suspects. Eyal Golan will continue to be questioned and it is possible he will be summoned on a daily basis.
The Tel Aviv police decided to embark on a wave of arrests in the early hours Wednesday morning in an attempt to evade the media. Eyal Golan was forced to show up to meet police at a preordained location. He was then taken for questioning at the police station on Salome Street in Jaffa.
The other suspects were not given the same honor. Golan's father was arrested when two police vehicles pulled up in front of his home. In addition, a media business executive was arrested at the Tel Aviv luxury apartment tower where he lives.
The police summoned the singer Maor Adari who was suspected of attending one of the parties, although he is not a suspect. He was released after questioning. "At first I thought it was a joke, that someone was pulling my leg. But the truth is, I was mortified," Adari, 24, told Israel Hayom.
"I told the investigators that I never attended any of Eyal Golan's shindigs and we are not friends."
In recent weeks, police have gathered considerable testimony as well as material from their wiretaps. They suspect that a group of people worked together to arrange sex parties with underage girls. There were several additional suspects who mediated between the group and young girls. The girls sometimes received expensive gifts.
Golan senior: "It was consensual"
Wednesday's investigation focused among other things on a birthday party that took place last summer at the Mamilla Club in Tel Aviv. After the party, Golan and his friends relocated to the singer's apartment. Golan does not deny having sex with one of the girls there, but he does deny knowing that she was younger than 16.
Golan is suspected of having sex with two underage girls. "I've had sex with lots of girls," he reportedly told police, "but I've always been careful about their age."
The police believe the evidence against Golan is shaky and may not lead to an indictment, but they will continue to question him in the coming days.
One of the central suspects in the case is Golan's father, who is suspected of being the driving force behind the entire affair. He is allegedly the one who would contact the young girls and make sure they came to the sex parties, promising that they would meet his son and giving them expensive gifts.
"The police's conduct in questioning him is strange to me," Golan senior's defense attorney, Sharon Keinan, said on Wednesday night.
The singer's father claimed that he contacted just one of the girls in question, and that she performed oral sex on him. He said he regrets erasing the video he took of the incident because then police would see that is was all consensual and that the girl is smiling. Police believe that additional video clips that could shed light on the affair were erased by those involved.
"This is a media carnival"
In addition to Golan's father, the production company employee also spent the night in jail. His lawyer, attorney Kobi Ben-Shaya, said, "I have no doubt that nothing will remain of this media carnival and my client will be released."
Another suspect who was released to house arrest is the party promoter, who is suspected of receiving a great deal of money from Eyal Golan's inner circle to bring young girls to the party. When he emerged from police questioning, the party promoter told reporters, "Only girls over the age of 25 came to these parties."
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