The family of Avraham Ben Dayan, the newlywed avreich who was arrested on Motzei Shabbos, told Kikar H’Shabbat that he was not permitted to lay tefillin on Sunday morning.

In a conversation with family members shortly before Shekiah, Ben Dayan said he requested several times to lay tefillin, but his requests were denied by those in charge at the facility. Family members expressed profound shock that in the State of Israel, a religious person is denied the ability to perform the most basic mitzvah and voiced serious concern about kashrus conditions and maintaining his religious lifestyle during detention.

Ben Dayan was detained near Ofakim after the car he was traveling in was stopped for inspection by a police officer. While the initial reason for stopping the vehicle was that one passenger was not wearing a seatbelt, the check revealed that Ben Dayan was wanted by military police for draft evasion, and he was transferred to custody.

With the help of Attorney Shlomo Haddad, family members describe an exhausting odyssey trying to locate Avraham’s whereabouts. They said they were first told he would be released from the Ofakim police station, but it turned out that he had been transferred to military police. From there the search continued between the Beit Hadassah base and Prison 10 in Netanya, with contradictory information provided at each stop about his exact location.

Attorney Haddad contacted the prison officer demanding explanations for the fog surrounding his client’s location and was told that instructions had been received from high-ranking officials not to disclose his precise whereabouts. As of now, the family has still not managed to deliver a basic care package to Ben Dayan, on the grounds that he has not yet had a military hearing—a process that was supposed to take place on Sunday morning.

Finally, on Sunday evening, at 7:41 p.m., the avreich was brought to trial and sentenced to 10 days in military prison.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)